Already the Boyle’s Santas Anonymous is hitting record numbers.
Shelby Hill, vice president Boyle Santas Anonymous, said this year she expects to have about 65 families signed up for hampers from the Grassland and Boyle area. Last year the program helped out 55 families.
“We started fundraising this year in the summertime,” she said. “We did a community garage sale and some hot dog sales just to get a head start on it.”
There are also a great number of volunteers signed up this year, at 20 so far and by last year the program only had eight or nine. Despite this, Hill said Santas Anonymous could always use more volunteers.
“We can always use more volunteers, because we do one or two events per weekend coming up,” she said. “We don’t want the same couple of volunteers getting their time completely exhausted and losing interest, so we welcome new volunteers all the time.”
Boyle’s Santas Anonymous has a busy month coming up, with their biggest event, Skate With Santa, taking place Dec. 9 at the Boyle Arena.
“We’ll have Santa on the ice, we’re going to decorate it up and do crafts and cookie decorations. The kitchen will be open and we’re going to try and do some raffles and a sleigh ride.”
“You have to bring a food, toy or money donation to get in. You could bring a can of beans and it’ll get you in then everything inside is free,” Hill added.
On Nov. 18, members of the public are invited to join the Santas Anonymous crew at the Co-Op for a truck stuffing alongside the fire department with a wiener-roast.
The annual food weigh off is also on Dec. 9, where local businesses will go head-to-head in seeing who can bring in the heaviest non-perishable food donation. Hill said usually the same five or six businesses partake in the weigh off each year, and some of the companies that donated last year have since left the village.
“I’m a bit curious to see what we’re going to have this year, but I think anything is helpful.”
The wrap-a-thon will take place Dec.14-15, when volunteers, some dressed in elf-costumes, will be wrapping presents. Anyone is welcome to help out.
Registration is open until about the first week of December for families to request hampers, and donation bins can be found throughout town and at the Santas Anonymous main depot, which is located at the post office.
Hill said Santas Anonymous is requesting more teen and male adult donations, as they are usually short on these items.
“Everybody likes buying for babies and stuff, but out dads need some help, too,” she said.
Hill said the program is important because Christmas-time can be a hard time of year, even for middle class families.
“You never know what’s going to happen; you never know if you’re going to get laid off, if your car is going to break down and you just have hard time making ends meet,” she said. “Everyone’s supposed to be happy at Christmas (and) you don’t need that burden of ‘Will my kid get a present?’, or ‘What are we going to eat for dinner on Christmas?’
“If we can lift that weight then hopefully they can focus on things that are more important.”
