Over the past few weeks, vivaNext staff has been adding to a box of gifts to donate to York Region’s Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Mostly gifts of toiletries and practical items for tweens and teens – things we sometimes take for granted but that can be luxuries to a youth on a tight budget. The CAS’ Holiday Heroes program welcomes all gifts, so staff also donated some items for kids of all ages. We then turned a staff meeting into a highly competitive gingerbread-house decorating contest so that we could donate them as well to unsuspecting families.
When we dropped off the donation to CAS last week, we had an opportunity to tour the warehouse where the gifts are sorted for distribution. We spoke to Dennis, who has a full-time job but volunteers his free time at the warehouse to ensure the gifts are ready to be delivered to children and families. We said hello to another Family Services Worker as she was picking up a carload of gifts Dennis had set aside for her to deliver to children and families she works with. The gifts in the warehouse are organized on tables by age group mostly, but there are some extra tables with gifts like our gingerbread houses that aren’t easily categorized.
At first glance it seemed like there were a lot of gifts, but the warehouse was far from full. As we left the warehouse, we were thinking how much our donation was needed and how relatively easy it was for our group to organize a contribution. Sometimes the good will of the holiday season brings about great things. So while this experience is still fresh in our thoughts, we’re thinking of other ways we at vivaNext can help people in our communities.