Heather Latter
The annual “Adopt-an-Angel” campaign wrapped up last week and was deemed a huge success.
“It was really successful, really well-supported this year,” enthused Becky McClain, supervised access co-ordinator with the Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services.
Christmas trees bearing the names, ages, and gift suggestions for each “angel” were located at Walmart, The Bargain Shop, and Taggs Source for Sports here, as well as Tompkins Hardware in Emo.
“We ended up, at the very end, with 165 children,” McClain noted. “And the majority were adopted.
“I had to maybe purchase three or four and a little bit of top-up, but the majority were adopted.”
McClain said the “Adopt-an-Angel” program helps children in need by reaching out to the community to purchase Christmas gifts for a child, or children, who likely would not receive them otherwise.
“It helps children from low-income families, as well as foster children and other children receiving help through Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services, to get gifts at Christmas,” she explained.
McClain noted the “Adopt-an-Angel” program has been running here for 12 years and helps roughly 150 children each year.
It reaches families from Rainy River to Atikokan.
In order to donate to “Adopt-an-Angel,” people were urged to visit one of the trees located at the four participating stores.
They then selected an “angel” off the tree and purchased a gift for that child.
When purchasing the items, the cashier would put the gift in a bag and tie the “angel” to the top, with donations being collected weekly.
McClain said she was most impressed by the students of Brad Hill’s Grade 4 class from J.W. Walker School who adopted 12 “angels” last week.
She noted they had sold popcorn every Friday since September and used the funds from that to adopt the “angels.”
“They had raised about $700,” McClain enthused, adding the students visited Walmart last Thursday to purchase the gifts.
They were separated into teams and they each had an “angel” to shop for.
“It was really sweet,” McClain said. “The kids went running around and bought the gifts, and they had fun doing that. . . .
“It’s one thing to just donate the money, but to bring them there and have them pick out the gifts was really nice,” she added.
But it wasn’t just the students who were generous. McClain was overwhelmed by the generosity of the community.
“It was one of the best year’s we’ve had generosity-wise,” she remarked.
“We typically say $25-$50 a gift, but I had two young kids that didn’t have winter jackets and we placed them on the tree.”
She said one of the jackets purchased for this child cost more than $100.
“So they were extremely generous donations this year,” McClain reiterated. “The community really stepped up.
“It’s really nice to see because there is so much going on,” she added. “For them to do this, it was really great.”
McClain added the sponsors also were fantastic.
“Tompkins sold out instantly,” she noted, adding Emo always is a great supporter of the campaign.
In fact, she said Tompkins asked for more “angels” but didn’t have any more to give them.
But towards the end of the campaign, they had some families requesting items and they still had time to place them on the tree.
McClain said the donations were picked up weekly and given to the parents or the foster parents unwrapped for them to give to the kids.
She added it’s a lot of work to organize the campaign, but she had a lot of help from Aimee McEvoy, a college student who was doing her placement with Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services.
“We also have an office in Atikokan so we had to make sure we got those gifts to Atikokan in time,” McClain noted.
“The last load was taken on Friday, so the workers this week have enough time to get them to the families before Christmas.”
McClain said they also received some monetary donations for the “Adopt-an-Angel” program.
For instance, the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board donated $290 from its “dress down” days while the Stratton Seniors Recreation donated $200.
McClain said the funds helped to top-up a couple of donations, as well as to buy a few additional gifts for the families whose names were added last-minute.
She explain the money also helped purchase a few “hard-to-buy” items, such as an Esso gift card that was requested from one of the children from Atikokan.
“That was one that wasn’t adopted because we don’t have Esso here,” noted McClain, adding the development of a Facebook page this year also helped to keep people updated.
“It got shared so quickly,” she enthused.
“Honestly, that weekend, most of the angels had been adopted.”
McClain added the agency once again is thankful for all the support from the community.
