Time is quickly running out and the St. Albert Kinettes have sounded the alarms.
Time is quickly running out and the St. Albert Kinettes have sounded the alarms. With the days and hours running down in the group's 47th annual Christmas Hamper Campaign, organizers are now scrambling to get everything that they had on their wish-list.
The turnout for last weekend's Fill-a-Bus event was a big disappointment and, as a result, donations are way down.
"Our Fill-a-Bus day was -40C so it kept people in," began Kinette Club of St. Albert president Kim Bedry. "That's one of our big donation [opportunities]. I think we're down about 20 per cent from last year. Our cash donations are down as well."
Monetary donations are reportedly down by approximately $20,000 from this time last year.
She added that if nothing improves this dire situation then all registered recipients would still get hampers, except that they won't be as complete as they would have hoped.
"Our hampers are a little smaller this year," she continued, saying that they always try to provide enough food to last each recipient for two to three weeks. "I think we're lucky to at least get that week-and-a-half in there right now. We just won't be able to provide as much this year."
Bedry said that the Kinettes are rallying harder to get the word out and hopefully drive up more donations during the home stretch of the campaign.
The Kinettes, along with several sponsors, work to provide each hamper with a turkey, ham, potatoes, carrots, cheese, margarine, flour, sugar, vegetables and oranges. Individuals and businesses from the community can also adopt a hamper by providing the foods and toys for a specific family size and for children of specific ages.
The goal is to provide up to 300 hampers for area families struggling to make ends meet.
Donations of non-perishable food items and new, unwrapped toys will be received until Sunday at the following locations: both Save-On Foods stores, St. Albert Centre, Curves, ATB, the St. Albert Visitors' Centre, TD Canada Trust (North), RBC, Allstate Insurance, AMA, Winners, Riverside Honda, Realty Executives Masters, Discovery Hearing, Laugh & Learn, the Bookstore on Perron Street, as well as Richard S. Fowler, Bellerose, Paul Kane and St. Albert High schools. People can deliver their donations straight to The Enjoy Centre as well where the Kinettes will be working to compile the hampers starting on Sunday.
Cash donations can be dropped off at Fire Hall #3 at 100 Giroux Road, or mailed to the Kinettes at P.O. Box 65064, Mission Hill Plaza, T8N 5Y3. Please make cheques payable to St. Albert Kinettes. Tax receipts are available upon request for donations over $20.
Volunteers are needed for sorting through till Saturday, Dec. 14 and also for hamper delivery on Sunday, Dec. 15 and Monday, Dec. 16.
To offer help in any way, please call 780-340-8076 or email [email protected].
