Thursday, December 19, 2019
VOLUME 2 I ISSUE 25
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Kiwanis Santa completes his rounds GEOFF LEE
WRITER
.................................. Santa was taking notes as the Lloydminster Kiwanis Club rolled out their 35th annual Santa Project. The man in red was in awe of the ability of club members and volunteers to fill nearly 2,000 bags of goodies for him to hand out to every pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2 student in the city. The delivery took place with military precision from Dec. 10 to 13 with Santa confident every child on his list in the Lloydminster public and Catholic school divisions got a present. “It’s very well-timed, there is not a minute to spare. This is probably our biggest project of the year and it’s the most fun we have,” said project chair John Anderson. He also has the answer as to what makes the Santa Project so popular after all these years. “It’s what the Kiwanis Club is all about—we do it for the kids. Some of the joy
you see on kids’ faces is just priceless,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are some children in Lloydminster who don’t get anything. This is something they look forward to receiving.” Anderson says kids get to sit on Santa’s knee for roughly 15 to 20 seconds and spill what they want for Christmas. They get their bag of presents and away goes Santa and his helpers to the next stop. “The kids are absolutely thrilled, and in many cases, this is the only gift that those children will receive,” said Vera Gallant, Lt. Governor of Kiwanis Division 5. “The teachers keep reporting that to us. Often there are older children that they know won’t get anything, so they’ll ask if we have extra bags, so we always make sure we have a few extras with us.” This year, the number of kids on the list jumped by more than 100 from last year, forcing Kiwanis to hire a Santa look-a-like on
the busiest day last Wednesday with eight schools to visit. “We hope they don’t meet on the road so kids don’t see two Santas at once,” joked Anderson in advance. Ironically, it was Kiwanis members and their supporters and not Santa who were making lists and checking them twice during a group bag packing exercise that followed an annual club supper at the Legacy Centre on Dec. 9. Each bag contained a tub of generic play dough, 10 candy bars, 1 Nibs, one bag of chips, a candy cane and a Christmas orange that all had to be packed into boxes labelled for each school. Oranges are also sent to the school in advance of Santa and his Kiwanis entourage. “There are many people in this room who are just friends of the Kiwanis and give us a hand every year. Without their help we definitely couldn’t pull this off,” said Anderson. Gallant says Safeway donates half of
Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Santa Claus asked College Park kindergarten student Evan Pineo what he wants for Christmas. Santa was on contract with the Lloydminster Kiwanis Club to visit all pre-K to Grade 2 students in the city last week.
the oranges while Real Canadian Superstore always donates a gift card towards purchasing chips or candy canes or whatever. “We shop locally,” she said. The Santa Project also got a financial
boost this year from the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority. “We applied for a grant and they were very generous and sent us a $2,000 cheque,” said Gallant. Kiwanis also raised about $8,000 from
separate beer and wine survivor events with some of that allocated to the Santa project. “We do have a lot of other projects that we do that we need funding for so we have to continuously fundraise,” said Gallant.