BONNYVILLE – Santa's Elves at Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS) will soon be hard at work collecting gifts for all the good girls and boys in town.
“Santa’s Elves program started in 1971 and we’ve been operating out of BCHS since then providing gift bags and toys to children in the area,” explained BCHS principal Mark Centazzo.
Families who may need a bit of extra help this holiday season sign-up with the Knights of Columbus. BCHS is provided with the number of children in each household, their age, and what they need.
Centazzo stressed the program is anonymous. The high school isn’t provided with any identifying information, such as names, addresses, or phone numbers.
Big red boxes will be seen throughout town, which are the donation drop-off locations for BCHS. The locations this year include at BCHS, Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre, Ducharme Motors, Lakeland Variety, Pharmasave, Bonnyville town hall, Tellier’s Pharmacy, Mr. Mike’s, and the Brick.
It’s at these places where residents can make donations of new, unopened items such as toys, books or clothing for the programs. The bins are emptied and everything is brought to be sorted by age and gender.
In 2019, the community helped bring Christmas cheer to 416 children in the Bonnyville area.
According to Centazzo, donated toys will be put under quarantine.
“We’re doing that on purpose so if there’s any type of contamination from the groups that come in, even though we’re going to follow protocols, those toys are going to sit for at least four of five days so that there’s no transmission there.”
Once that’s finished, the toys will be sorted and bagged ahead of the Wrapping Party. Another change due to COVID-19 for the program is the event being broken up into three separate events at the Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) Trades Exposure Centre at 6201 56 Ave., which will have 40 volunteers working hard to wrap every item.
Thursday, Dec. 10 and Friday, Dec. 11 will have shifts from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., while Dec. 12 will go from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Centazzo said a shift from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. will also be available on Saturday if not every gift is ready to head out.
If the restrictions on how many people can attend change, Santa’s Elves will figure out their next steps and let volunteers know about the changes.
Volunteers will be asked to self-screen before attending, along with using hand sanitizer and to wear a mask the day of. The registration deadline for those wanting to help out is Dec. 7 and applications can be sent to [email protected] with your name, email address, phone number, and date request.
It’s the Knights of Columbus who give Santa a helping hand. They come by to pick up all the toys once wrapping is finished and hand out all of the bundles to all of the families who applied for the program.
Due to the coronavirus and the economic downturn, Centazzao believes there could be an increase in the demand this year and he’s worried about being able to keep up with it.
“We expect a higher application for toys and help. Opposite of that, because of the way the economics are and COVID-19 impact, we’re wondering if there will be less availability for companies and people to donate,” he noted. “We’ve gotten some donations already that took that into consideration, some of the groups knew we were maybe going to be in a hard spot so we’ve gotten some bigger donations for our former donors. We’re pleased so far and we’re counting on the ability of people to give what they can in the coming year.”
Families interested in receiving donations can visit the Knights of Columbus.
