COCHRANE— Embracing the season of giving, the Cochrane Activettes helped 288 families, or 975 individuals, 419 of whom were children, through its Share Your Christmas hamper program.
“People were really generous this year, businesses and individuals,” said Cochrane Activettes member Kathy Hubman. “That’s a pretty big number, but we were able to give gifts to each child and we had ample donations, so that was nice.”
Hubman said the number of applicants for Christmas hampers were lower than expected, especially given the challenging economic circumstances the COVID-19 pandemic created for many community members.
“That was a good surprise. That means that maybe not as many people were in need as we originally thought,” she said. "We’re all still a little puzzled by that, to be honest. We basically had the same amount of need we did this year as we did last year, maybe a few less.”
Hubman noted that independent programs giving Christmas hampers to senior facilities in town may have been the cause of the slight decrease.
The Cochrane Activettes drew on a number of organizations and programs to source the toys for its hamper program.
The Cochrane and Area Events Society supplied many toys through its Stuff a Bus Toy Drive and the Calgary Hitmen’s Teddy Bear Toss program provided hundreds of teddy bears.
Various businesses that were forced to forego Christmas parties and festivities instead repurposed those funds and donated to the Activettes. As well, local businesses hosted collection bins in their offices and ran contests to see who could collect the most.
Cochrane’s emergency services collected hundreds of toys from community members during their Community Parades which took place at the beginning of December before provincial health restrictions forced them to cease the neighbourhood processions.
Cochrane’s schools also stepped up in the face of COVID-19, Hubman said, to collect donations from staff and students.
“It was wonderful for them to still have the program to support the food bank and the Share Your Christmas program because it would have been easy for the teachers or the administration to say ‘hey we don’t want to do this because of COVID,’ but they still did. That was a huge plus for us.”
All of those various programs came together to make the Activettes’ Share Your Christmas a resounding success.
Each year, Hubman said, during the hamper pickups, families are thankful and often emotional, but seeing the community support this year was an especially meaningful experience for volunteers with the Cochrane Activettes.
“It was wonderful. We were all very emotional about how wonderful the season of Share Your Christmas went given the COVID circumstances,” she said. “We were very happy to see that we didn’t have as much need as we were planning for, but also to see the community come together and support the program was really heartwarming.”
The Activettes will continue on with their regular programming for now, including resuming the services of the Cochrane Food Bank beginning on Monday (Jan. 4).
If you are in need of the food bank’s services, contact Family and Community Support Services at 403-851-2250.
