Positive changes for the Christmas Sharing program in Belleville

By Matthew Morgan ^[1]

BELLEVILLE – Margo Holloway likes the new home for the Christmas Sharing program in Belleville.

For the past 35 years, Holloway, 75, has been volunteering with the program.  This is the second year it has been operating out of it new home located upstairs from the Royal Canadian Legion ^[2] in downtown Belleville.

Holloway said that the change has been a breath of fresh air. The way its set up makes it easier to distribute the toys to each child because it’s more organized. She said that rather than having to dig through bins and sort through items she can just reach up to the appropriate pre-labeled shelf to access the toys or items that she needs to put in each individual toy box for children in need.

Holloway said the reason that initially got into volunteering was to make a difference.

“Well for me I do it for the kids,” she said. “No kid should be left without something on Christmas.”

The Christmas Sharing program was started 50 years ago to serve underprivileged children and families in the city. Today the program assists over 700 children and around 1300 people.

A big part of the sharing program is the toy drive run by firefighters in Belleville.

Ryan Turcotte has been the chairman of the firefighter’s toy drive for the past five years.

“This year we will giving toys to an estimated 700 families, which is generally about 1500 kids,” said Turcotte.

Turcotte also said that there are benefits to the new location in the legion.

“We always have our boxes planned, so we make sure that there is one large item as well as a puzzle in each box,” “We also make sure we pack toques and mittens,” Turcotte said.

“We have delivery dates for families that are unable to pick up the toys and our delivery dates are usually the last Monday before the Christmas holiday break,” Turcotte said.

Pam Smith has been the program’s coordinator for the past five years and that this year was special because it is their 50th  year running the program in Belleville.

Smith said the number of people signing up for the program has been steadily increasing since she’s been in charge.

“We have seen it peaks when people come and register for the Christmas Sharing program, at the beginning of the month there’s always a huge amount of interests and we have lots of people register.”

“If you were a family that would come to us and qualified for assistance, you would receive a food basket, that would have everything in there you would need for Christmas dinner and then some,” Smith said.

She said that it’s not just families who are entitled to receive assistance through the Christmas Sharing program, but individuals are also eligible for a $25 gift card for a grocery store to help out with the cost at Christmas time.

“We do our registration in the month of November, we the assign families to our partnered businesses, schools, and families that sponsor families.

“We rely on fully on donations and generosity of the community,” Smith said.

Drop-off stations for the toy drive will be set up outside the Toys R Us store in the Quinte Mall and only new toys will be accepted.

Anyone interested in donating can visit the Christmas Sharing  ^[3]website or call the office at 613-969-1020.