THUNDER BAY – Toys for Tots didn’t quite hit their unofficial target for 2018, but the number they did reach means thousands of children will have a merrier Christmas next year.
Paul Penna, chair of the Thunder Bay Professional Firefighters Toys for Tots campaign, said the $127,180 they did manage to raise is a fantastic total, one that will do a lot of good in the community.
“We had a feeling it was going to be tough,” Penna said, noting they don’t actually set an official goal each year, but do aim for the $150,000 mark.
“We try to get where we were last year, because we know we did well with the money. We didn’t get to where we were last year, but we’re still OK. We had a feeling this was going to happen. There are a lot of worthy charities out there and Thunder Bay’s dollar only goes so far.”
The final tally is huge, he added.
“We’re absolutely ecstatic,” Penna said.
The impact is going to be felt throughout the city.
“Everybody knows that Christmas is a very, very special time of year, and so much more so for children,” he said. “Even for us adults it’s a special time of year. So to think about families going with hardly any gifts for their children, the way we recognize these families through the government agencies and recognize the children, who are identified by age and gender-specific."
“So when they come to their food hampers, to receive them from Christmas Cheer, those children are given age- and gender-specific gifts. They’re quite considerable, the amount of money we spend on them.”
According to Christmas Cheer co-chair Joleene Kemp, exactly 4,017 children received a gift this year, after hitting their campaign goal of $116,000, with a little room to spare.
“And we were able to give 8,296 people food for a week, plus turkey and all of the trimmings for Christmas dinner. Only five per cent did not come and pick up their hampers. That’s one of the lowest numbers we’ve had."
