Toys Days presented by Penfor Construction is coming up soon.
Toy coordinator Joanne Dyck says it’s always great to see parents take their kids to partake in the gift giving.
“That is the best. I think they're teaching their kids a great lesson to give and to be generous to others, and to let them know that not everybody has all the same opportunities to bless their kids at Christmas as some families do.”
Dyck says sometimes they have a surplus of toys donated for certain age groups, and they save them for the next years' Toys Days.
She says there are two age groups where they find they can always use more donations.
“The older ages and the babies, those are the kind of the areas where we tend to struggle a little bit. So those areas we don't typically have surplus that we're putting away, and those are the areas that we're always asking for more.”
Dyck says they need toys for all ages, so just shop for the ages you want to shop for.
“We need it all. We definitely need it all. Age three to five, the six to 12, even sometimes we need a bit more there too as well. I remember last year, the six to nine for sure we were a little bit tight at the end there.”
She informs that right now they have around 1,400 registrations for hampers.
“And there's another week of registration left. For toys, I'm at about 1,960 right now, and last year we gave out 2024, so probably we’ll be at least around the same, if not a little bit more again.”
They are already collecting toys for Steinbach Community Christmas.
Dyck says schools, businesses, and even the Steinbach Pistons have been putting on toy drives.
They will soon be setting up storage in Steinbach United Church, as they have donated their space for Steinbach Community Christmas and it’s right beside South East Helping Hands.
“They did this last year as well, and it was so nice because we don't have room in Southeast Helping Hands building anymore for the toys. So it was so handy.”
She notes last year, they had a hockey team carry over the toys for them from Steinbach United Church to SEHH.
“Cause it's a lot of moving things around and stuff when you're not in the same space, so that was super helpful and it just works really smoothly having it right next door.”
Dyck says her and the team with be working all day every day for the next couple of weeks.
“We're going to set up everything, organize everything, and then we have Toys Days and then that's the bulk of the toys, so that's a big job to go through next week.”
Toys Days presented by Penfor Construction is taking place at Canadian Tire in Steinbach on December 3rd and 4th.
With files from Corny Rempel