The Santa Claus Fund was donated around 3,000 mini sticks from Frank Callaghan this year to give to families.--NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
Families accessing the Medicine Hat News Santa Claus Fund this year are able to gift their children a little piece of history.
The SCF was contacted by Frank Callaghan this year, who ended up donating thousands of wooden mini hockey sticks.
“Frank called us in October and he indicated that he had excess inventory from a local company that used to manufacture mini sticks,” said SCF executive director Deanna Doerksen. “I told him I would absolutely take some off his hands, but when I got there and saw them I realized they were these beautiful vintage wood hockey mini sticks. I was blown away and he was so generous to let us take all of them.
“They are fantastic and we are so thankful for the donation.”
About 3,000 wooden mini sticks ended up being donated to the SCF by Callaghan. Many NHL teams that were around in the 1980s are represented in the selection. That includes the Original Six.
There is also a small selection of sticks that were designed for companies.
There are both player and goalie sticks.
Busy so far
The SCF is about halfway through its intake of clients and has seen an increase in usage compared to last year.
As of Friday morning, the SCF has helped 319 families. Within that number, 695 children have received gifts. The SCF has distributed $33,550 in grocery vouchers this winter.
The SCF is in need of many types of toys and gifts, but girls from ages 7-12 are one area where donations are badly needed. Donations for infants from 0-2 is also a high-need area for the charity.
The local Wendy’s location has stepped in to collect point-of-sale donations for the SCF. There is also a Tree of Wishes with name tags on it, where people can buy gifts for specific children. All proceeds from Frosty sales on Dec. 11 will go to the SCF.
The Scotiabank donation campaign is seeing plenty of support says Doerksen, but there is still time to donate at the Holiday Home on Dunmore Road or at the Dunmore Road Scotiabank.
