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It’s been a record-breaking year for the Richmond Christmas Fund. Thanks to the generosity of the community, and the success of fundraisers such as A Not So Silent Night, donations topped more than $125,000. More people than ever sought help this year from the Christmas Fund, the final number likely to top 2,700.
Photos courtesy Richmond Christmas Fund
Christmas spirit magnified in Richmond
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It was a cloudy November morning, the first of four registration and toy pick-up days for the Richmond Christmas Fund.
At the front of the line stood a teenaged girl, who had been waiting in line since 1:30 a.m. Her dad had dropped her off before heading off to work the night shift, before returning to join her in line to receive food gift cards and toys.
By the time Ed Gavsie and others overseeing the program arrived around 8 a.m. to prepare for distribution an hour later, the line had grown substantially longer.
“To me, it demonstrates the need for the service (which provides assistance to low-income individuals and families in Richmond lacking the financial means to celebrate the holiday),” says Gavsie, president and CEO of Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives which oversees the Christmas Fund.
It also spoke to both the girl’s determination to assure her two younger brothers will have a Merry Christmas, as the fund provides toys (all donated by the community) for children 11 and under as well as grocery gift certificates.
In another scenario, three siblings in foster care will enjoy a happier holiday after a Richmond school principal notified Richmond Christmas Fund officials of their children’s plight. The elementary principal visited to toy room, chose toys for each of the siblings, will wrap them and present them to the children.
Gavsie says while Richmond is an incredibly generous community, it’s also clear that poverty is well hidden.
Reflecting the age-old motto that it takes a village to raise a child, it’s the community as a whole that makes the Richmond Christmas Fund a success. But while contributions and volunteer to help continue to increase year over year, sadly so too apparently does the need.
Organizers are quick to note that many of those accessing the program have simply fallen on hard times, or finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
“We have working poor, we don’t have a Downtown Eastside, so our poverty is really spread out and we don’t see it magnified,” Gavsie explains.
While there is a tendency to emphasize the corporate donations, the support of individuals and toy drives by the likes of girls’ soccer and boys’ hockey teams are equally important and appreciated.
“To see an athlete getting a million-dollar-a-game pay cheque or to look at the face of a child getting two $15 toys, there is no comparison,” Gavsie says.
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