United Way’s gift wrapping booth open for the Holidays

By Mo Cranker on December 10, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Whether you’re too lazy to wrap Christmas gifts, really bad at it or are just looking to give back to a local charity this holiday season — the gift wrap booth at the mall has you covered.

The booth is organized by United Way South East Alberta and has been setup and wrapping gifts for Hatters since Black Friday.

“This is a really big fundraiser for us,” said United Way executive director Missy Fandrick. “We’ve been doing this for 20-plus years here at the mall and it’s 100 per cent run by volunteers.

“This is a great way to give back and get something in return — especially if you’re not good at gift wrapping.”

All of the money raised at the at the booth stays locally, with United Way giving money out each year to different organizations.

“We use wrapping paper that we get from Ontario and it’s really good stuff — you can’t find wrapping paper like it here,” she said. “We make sure there’s tissue paper and we just make sure the gift looks like a million dollars.”

The booth is open the same hours as the mall and will be operating until the end of the day on Christmas Eve.

“We’ll be open for all of those last-minute shoppers,” said Fandrick. “Even though it’s completely run by volunteers we always have someone here working at the booth.”

The cost of wrapping is determined by how large an item is. Fandrick says things can cost between $3-15 on average.

“We measure things the long way around to determine how much it’ll cost — people usually get a pretty good deal and the money goes to a good cause.”

The booth accepts all forms of payment including cash, debit and credit. It is located by Shoppers and Safeway in the mall.

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