Christmas Hope Campaign commences at city hall
By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on November 15, 2022.
With jingle bells signalling the start of the holiday season, the Christmas Hope Campaign has begun in Lethbridge.Marking the 16th consecutive year of the campaign on Monday at City Hall, six agencies: the Lethbridge Food Bank, Interfaith Food Bank, Lethbridge Family Services Angel Tree, MyCityCare Shop of Wonders, Volunteer Lethbridge, and the Salvation Army, will jointly assist the community this holiday season, hoping to serve approximately 3,000 adults and 5,500 children with supplies.
Because of the shared clientele Christmas Hope is a multi-agency collaboration of organizations working together to serve those in need.
“The nice thing about our partnership is every agency still maintains their identity, as well as the program that they offer,” said Danielle McIntyre, executive director with Interfaith. “We make sure that we are not doing anything twice, the nice thing for our community of donors is you can give to any one of our agencies and they will make sure that we get everything to where it is needed most. The partnership helps us do what we do best and work together to maximize resources and limit duplication. By working together, we use one master registration list that makes sure that families are being helped.”
To help organize all the information and resources, Christmas Hope has a website at http://www.christmashope.ca featuring updates and progress as the holidays get underway.
With many programs going towards helping those in need, the Christmas Hope unity helps spread awareness while making sure everyone is included on Santa’s list this season.
“Partnering together means that our resources can go further,” said Kathrine Kuzminski with the Salvation Army. “We can help people better without having to spread our resources thin. This year especially, with the higher cost of living.”
Speaking about the increase in expenses this season, many note the growing concern to help all those in need.
“We have seen a lot of new registrations, a lot of people who have never experienced (these issues) have a lot of questions and a lot of anxiety,” said Kuzminski. “It is important that people know, regardless of what your financial situation is, if you need help this Christmas, the agencies are happy to help anybody who has a need. If your electricity bills are higher, but you have a full-time job, that doesn’t mean that you are not eligible. Don’t hesitate to apply, because we are here to help the entire community. We are seeing a lot more and we anticipate by next month that will increase quite a bit.”
Looking toward projections, Christmas Hope will see an increase of demand this holiday season.
“We have just come out of our pandemic into crazy economic inflation. We are seeing a lot of people who wouldn’t normally need the support coming out this year,” said McIntyre. “We have bumped our numbers, this year we are expecting to serve 3,000 adults and 5,500 children. It is well over 1,000 more people than we had projected for last year. We always have a best guess as to what those numbers will look like, but we do know just from trends we have seen so far, a lot more people are needing more help this year.”
With a goal to help make the holidays a happy time of year without the financial stresses, these elves will work through the winter to deliver all of Santa’s gifts to everyone in need.
“We are very grateful that we have as many partners as we do and the community to support us through this,” said McIntyre. “Collectively we work together to ensure that every family that needs support is getting the stuff for a Christmas meal as well as gifts underneath the tree.” 2
-1
