Christmas for Kids a huge success

Myrlene Boken
St. Peter's Anglican
Church

The Christmas for Kids program had another successful year making sure that all of the children in the south Innisfil area experienced the magic of Christmas. This year we helped 65 children in 32 families, a total of 103 people.

This initiative is spearheaded by the Anglican and United churches and is based on the Christian principle of showing human compassion,"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in," Matthew 25:35.

The program is a success because it involves the entire community; the schools, churches and community groups. Killarney Beach and Innisfil Central public schools provided the toys and food from their annual drives. This year we were also helped by St. Francis of Assisi (thank you Nuala Evans), who donated food, hats and mitts. Thank you to the student council of Nantyr Shores Secondary School for organizing the hundreds of pounds of food that was donated to the program.

Thank you to the hundreds of children that gave so generously to help other children in the community. Many teachers and principles also supported our program with financial donations.

We are thankful to all of the churches. The members of St. Peter's Anglican Church, particularly Sarah Boken, Mike Burrows, Ed Collins, Andy Gerow, Helen and Christopher Goodeve and Marie White, all gave generously of their time. The Churchill and Gilford United churches, in particular, Bev Kell, Paula Murphy, Anne Kell, Carrie Somerville and Lynn Rutledge, for their help. A special thank you also goes out to the Churchill United Church Sunday School and the Churchill/Gilford United Church Youth Group for their support. The members of all of the churches purchased gifts and gift certificates, knit hats and mitts, donated money, wrapped gifts and helped as needed. A big thank you to Lefroy United Church this year, who gave a generous donation.

This year we had considerable support from the community. The Killarney Beach Lions Club, the Lefroy Social Club, the Belle Ewart Legion, the Town of Innisfil Public Works Department, and Jeff Hellings from Decorator's Edge in Bradford, as well as several very generous private individuals who gave donations. Our thanks to Joan Thomas, our ambassador in the community, who helped spread the word and collected just over one third of the financial donations for the program. We would like to thank Margaret McCleary and Darlene Braybrook for making 60 bags of candies and treats for the children's stockings and P and H Foods for the donation of turkeys for each family.

Thank you to Diane Young for her support and for getting the word out for us.

Each family received a $40 certificate for Wal-Mart, a $25 food certificate for Sobeys, a $20 Esso gas certificate, a turkey, gifts for each child, stocking stuffers and a large box of food. We were able to help everyone who was referred to us, thanks to the generosity of our community.