Santas wanted: Yukon group needs holiday hamper help
Share The Spirit campaign looking for people to buy small gifts for Yukon children
Yukon's annual "Share the Spirit" campaign has pushed back the deadline for donations to its Christmas hamper program, as organizers struggle to meet demand this year.
The program provides hampers with food, clothes, toys and other gifts to families in need. This year the Whitehorse Firefighters charitable society took over the campaign, after the Whitehorse Kin Club bowed out.
"We're scrambling," said Nicolas O'Carroll, of the Whitehorse Firefighters charitable society. "This is where we need the help of the community. We're doing all we can.
"We've got our food lined up, we have good cash donations that are coming through — we still need some — but sponsorships are really where the low point is," he said.
Child sponsorships down
O'Carroll says child sponsorships — where sponsors get a wish list from a child, to add a gift to the family's hamper — are down compared to last year.
Organizers put the word out on Monday that they needed more donations and O'Carroll said many people responded immediately, but the campaign is still only "about 75 per cent of the way there.
"Luckily the sponsors we have, have taken on quite a bit more. But there's only so much they can take on," O'Carroll said.
The gifts are usually small, like books, arts and craft supplies, or building toys.
"They're very simple and humble requests. It may just be Christmas presents, but more importantly it shows some of these kids that we care, that they're not forgotten and we're trying to give them a good Christmas."
The campaign was supposed to wrap up on Monday but organizers decided to continue accepting donations until Thursday.
O'Carroll says there just seems to be more need in the community this year.
"We definitely see that firsthand, just by the amount of referrals that have come through for families that are in need," he said.
With files from Leonard Linklater