CFAX Santas Anonymous donation helps feed families and send kids to camp
VICTORIA – A donation of more than $21,000 to the Burnside Gorge Community Association will help support families make ends meet and send 30 kids to camp this summer.
The community association will put $14,622 of the donation towards a food hamper program for neighbourhood families. The program supports 50 families with fresh fruit and vegetables during the late spring and early summer months.
“It is a weekly lifesaver,” said Burnside Gorge Community Association executive director Suzanne Cole. “For that short period of time in their year, they don’t have to worry where their fruit and vegetables are coming from.”
Staff with the community group will also be providing children’s snack bags for 50 families who receive support from the food program. Cole says it supports families when their children are home during the summer.
Staff say in the past year the cost of food has risen eight percent, and many low income families are feeling the strain.
“We’re helping relieve a little bit of stress in a time where finances can be really tight,” said Cole. “Families are still recovering from the winter, so high utility bills that they are still paying off, and it’s just one thing on top of another that creates a lot of barriers.”
Cole says $7,000 of the Santas Anonymous donation will allow 30 young people to participate in the community association’s Camp Survivor program. The summer camp program gives kids aged 10 to 14 a chance to experience outdoor activities, like zip lining and kayaking, by subsidizing the fees associated with the activity.
“I think in today’s day and age when kids are tied to their phones or isolated at home, it gives them an opportunity to get out in nature and be active,” said Cole. “Santas Anonymous provides us with 30 subsidies for camp and a little extra money for food, so we always have healthy snacks for kids who might not come with enough food.”
Cole says CFAX Santas Anonymous has provided financial support to the Camp Survivor program for more than 15 years. She says this is the third year the children’s charity has provided funding for the food program.
Staff with CFAX Santas Anonymous say fundraising activities, like the Miracle on Broad Street and Al’s 21 for 21, are a key part to helping fund donations to groups like the Burnside Gorge Community Association.
“It’s our community that steps up to make this donation happen,” said CFAX Santas Anonymous executive director Christine Hewitt. “Our board of directors looks at where the greatest need, is and this is one of the greatest needs.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Custom baseball card released of Blue Jays fan struck in the face with foul ball
Liz McGuire, the Blue Jays fan who was struck in the face with a 110 m.p.h. foul ball last week, has been pictured on a custom baseball trading card applauding her fandom to the game.
As Canada warms, infectious disease risks spread north
Cases of Lyme disease have now increased more than 1,000 per cent in a decade as the warming climate pushes the boundaries of a range of pathogens and risk factors northward.
Blaine Higgs 'furious' over sexual education presentation
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has shared his anger on social media over a presentation in at least four high schools.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Why did the French Open cancel a farewell ceremony for Rafael Nadal? And why is he unseeded?
The French tennis federation put off holding a ceremony to celebrate Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros this year, because he has said this might not necessarily be his final appearance at the tournament he has won a record 14 times.
Search underway for missing swimmer on Lake St. Clair
A search is currently underway for a Michigan man who police said jumped into the waters of Lake St. Clair on Saturday afternoon and did not resurface.