ATHABASCA — On Dec. 12, a small but dedicated group of volunteers delivered 182 Santa’s Anonymous hampers packed with Christmas dinner fixings and gifts for the whole family to households scattered across Athabasca County and beyond.
“It’s a pleasure, it’s just a good feeling that I’m helping others that are in need,” said Virginia Donald, a volunteer with the cause for more than 20 years. “I know what they’ve been through, I’ve been there as a child.”
Donald has headed the local Santa’s Anonymous efforts for the last five years, and although the initiative ensured nearly 200 families in the Athabasca area had food to put on the table and gifts under the tree this holiday season, she said this year was a difficult one.
“We were quite short this year on gifts, on donations we were very short,” said Donald.
Locals out and about this December may have noticed Santa’s Anonymous donation bins at events like the Community Christmas Supper, and at almost every store in town. But despite their visibility, need for a helping hand during the holidays outpaced the external input.
“We didn’t collect very much income or funding from industry,” she said. “Usually we get between $8,000 and $10,000 to pay for our groceries — this year we had to go into our reserve.”
The total cost of the 182 hampers hasn’t been tallied up — nearly a week after the delivery date, Donald said she’s still receiving calls from families in surrounding areas requesting hampers; requests that tug at the heartstrings.
“It’s hard for me to say no when they ask, that they have no food or gifts for Christmas.”
According to Donald’s initial estimates, turkeys alone cost $3,734, even accounting for a discount from the grocery store and a few birds left over in the Santa’s Anonymous freezer from last year.
And in addition to a reduction in industry donations, Donald also said their take of community donations was less than anticipated.
Both cash and gift donations collected by various groups and at different events intended for Santa’s Anonymous were split with the Good Samaritan Mission, the local food bank.
Though splitting the proceeds from their efforts left Santa’s Anonymous volunteers with the question as to how to fill their hampers, Donald noted the driver of the increased demand is the current economy, leaving more families with greater needs and others with less to give.
But the community did step up, according to Donald, as well as three other dedicated volunteers. Mellisa, Bob, and Emmalynne Salamon have manned donation tables and more during the holiday season for the last four years, and were quick to give credit to individuals and organizations in town who demonstrated notable generosity.
“Hunter Motors, they did amazing,” said Melissa. “They did the ‘fill-a-truck,’ they had oilfield companies that helped out as well, they did amazing for our town.”
Donald said without the donation from Hunter Motors, completing all 182 and counting hampers would not have been possible.
Donald, her family, the Salamon’s, and other volunteers drove far and wide on delivery day, with stops in and around the town, as well as Wandering River, Boyle, Ellscott, Perryvale, and as far as Flatbush.
In addition to growing requests for hampers, Donald said the boundaries for their service area are also expanding.
“Boyle has shut down, there’s no Santa’s Anonymous,” she said. “Westlock shut down, so then they’re all calling for Athabasca to service them.”
“I can’t service them all, I don’t want to go over what we have in our bank, we need a little bit of seed for next year,” said Donald. “It’s hard for me to say no when they ask, that they have no gifts or food for Christmas.”
With a reduced savings account, volunteers like Donald and the Salamon’s are already thinking ahead about fundraising efforts for next year. Bob and Donald both highlighted the importance of year-round awareness of the cause, and said the volunteers are considering mid-year donation drives to ease the burden of Christmas-time collections.
But despite the difficulties this year, both Donald and the Salamon’s stressed the importance of giving back to the community, offering a helping hand to those in need, and instilling those values in community youth.
Emmalynne, Melissa’s daughter, was the driving force behind the Salamon’s involvement in the organization, and Donald recruits her husband, children and grandchildren to help package and deliver hampers every year.
“I think we’ll keep it up as long as we can, and then maybe somebody else will like to take it over,” said Donald, noting she would like to build the reserve back up before handing the initiative off.
“With the times now, that’s going to be hard to do, because there’s so many people that are in need now.”
