Staff
Holmlund Financial has issued a challenge to other businesses to step up and sponsor or adopt families for the local Salvation Army’s Christmas hamper program.
Susan Bodnarchuk said Friday that staff at Holmlund’s (consisting of Wendy Calder, Jean Dick, Bob Gustafson, Lori Shoemaker, and herself) all agreed to forego their office gift exchange this year and instead donate money that would have been spent on gifts for each other towards sponsoring a hamper for a family of four, with the company topping up the funds.
“We challenge other businesses to do the same,” Bodnarchuk noted, adding Holmlund Financial also sponsored a family last Christmas.
“Don’t wait until the last minute. We need help now,” Capt. Marlene Sandoval of the Salvation Army stressed this morning.
She said the Salvation Army is hoping to provide roughly 200 hampers for area families this Christmas, but right now only 30-40 of those hampers have sponsors or have been “adopted.”
She added time is running out, and that’s why it’s so important businesses, families, and individuals help out the Salvation Army hamper program either by giving money at kettles, giving monetary donations (by mailing a cheque in the envelope in the Christmas appeal letter sent out late last month) or, more specifically, through two hamper-specific programs: “Adopt-a-Family” and “Sponsor-a-Family.”
With the “Adopt-a-Family” program, the Salvation Army provides a profile of a family, along with a wish list for gifts for the children and a food list, which includes a turkey, butter, canned vegetables, cereal, Christmas oranges, powdered milk, coffee/tea, bread and buns, potatoes, carrots, cheese, pancake mix and syrup, bacon and eggs, cranberries, stuffing, pasta, cookies, juice, chips, candy/nuts, chocolates, and a Christmas dessert.
Under the “Sponsor-a-Family” program, a benefactor may donate $225 to the Salvation Army to help a family of four or $150 to help a “singles” family.
The Salvation Army will use that money to go out and purchase the items that are needed, then put the hamper together themselves.
To help out, call 274-3871 or drop by the Salvation Army’s Citadel on Victoria Avenue (across from the clinic).
In related news, the Salvation Army remains in dire need of bell ringers for its Christmas kettles, which will be out at Safeway, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, and LCBO until Dec. 24.
Volunteers are requested to man the kettles for two hours at a time.
Call the number above if you’d like to lend a hand.
