All of the packages have neatly been put together and lined up, ready up for their special deliveries. The 2011 edition of the St. Albert Kinettes' Christmas Hamper campaign was successful in putting bows on the approximately 220 gifts of food and toys for local families struggling to make ends meet.
This was the 45th year for the local service group's charity mission to provide meals and gifts to those St. Albert families who would otherwise go without. The end results are pretty comparable to last year's campaign that served 225 families. Each family's hamper this year includes three boxes of goods.
"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Karen Mehok from the centre of the sorting facility where all of the donations are organized and compiled into the hampers. "It's happening again."
Time and time again, the Kinettes' long-time organizer in charge of the yearly two-week operation has much the same experience. What starts off with a bang on a late November, early December Saturday morning at St. Albert Centre gradually builds in momentum and intensity until the final weekend.
Usually, the effort is just a constant buzz of collecting and co-ordinating people and donations. She explained that the intensity this year was mostly in the anticipation of whether or not everything would come together as nicely as she hoped it would.
Like most years, it all came down to the wire … and a team of city bus drivers who donated a few hours of their time to promote the cause.
"The Fill-a-Bus was amazing! If it wasn't for the Fill-a-Bus, we wouldn't be able to have this thing happen. It means just everything for this campaign. It's just amazing how St. Albert comes through on the buses. I was so worried on Friday and now… it's just incredible."
Before Saturday's event, the campaign was well behind its normal placement at that point in the game. For example, she said that the toy room would usually have been emptied four or five times with "heaping" amounts of toys. On Friday, it had only been emptied twice and it was only half-full each time.
"There was barely anything."
Luckily, there was a last-minute flood of donors to help put things back where they should be. Mehok and her crew had a lot of help from not only the bus drivers, but also a city program that allows people to substitute payments for parking tickets with toy donations.
Toys for Tickets
The city's Toys for Tickets campaign has now closed and the bad news for those receiving local parking infractions is good news for the Kinettes and recipients of their Christmas hampers.
The program, now in its third outing, ran Nov. 15 to 30. Anyone who received a $40 parking ticket during that time had the option of donating a toy instead of paying the fine.
Last year, 72 per cent of ticketed drivers took advantage of the deal. This year things worked out a little bit better, according to Garnet Melnyk, senior officer with municipal enforcement services.
"It went really well," he began. "We wrote 89 tickets and out of those, 88 people paid with a toy. I'm ecstatic. It was a great program. The community seemed to take it in stride."
In fact, some paid with more than one toy, bringing the bounty to 123 toys. Melnyk said that the storage room was a popular place.
"Every morning I looked at them. I've got two young boys myself so it's almost like Christmas shopping. Everyone ends up pushing buttons on the electronic toys that talk or something," he laughed.
He ended by saying that the program would run again in 2012.
Fill-a-Bus
City buses normally are only meant to carry passengers, but last Saturday a mini fleet of them turned into giant grocery shopping carts.
This was the tenth anniversary of the Fill-A-Bus event, a program run by the drivers of Diversified Transportation and supported by St. Albert Transit. The one-day blitz saw one bus set up at each of seven locations across the city to encourage members of the public to pick up a few extra items on their shopping lists and make a convenient donation.
Dave Stevenson has been at the head of the effort since the beginning and he always feels a huge sense of relief once it's over. While there's no way of knowing exactly how much was donated, he knows that he and the other volunteer drivers got the job done because the Kinettes met their goal. He said that the buses were full.
"Everything went very well. It was about the same as last year, maybe a little more. There were more toys than last year. It was busy. The economy's in the crapper so we thought people might not come out, but enough people did."
To enquire about the Kinettes, volunteering for or donating to the group, or the hamper campaign itself (including how to get on the list), call Mehok at 780-418-3930 or visit www.stalbertkinettes.ca.
