More Donations Given at Wrap-Up for Fill a Cruiser

More Donations Given at Wrap-Up for Fill a Cruiser

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

The ‘Fill a Cruiser’ crew had a visitor at their site at Canadian Tire’s parking lot on December 4 where Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, presented them with toys for the Vegreville Christmas Bureau from her family.

After this event, Santa gave his final report where he said, “Santa’s heart is just filled with joy this year because of all the donations that have been given this year to the Vegreville Christmas Bureau.

The support that we have received from the community has been overwhelming, to say the least. As this was the first time that Santa and his elves have ever teamed up with the RCMP, Municipal Enforcement, and Fish & Wildlife, the support from all three organizations have been nothing but fun and rewarding. Officers have come in to help on their own time and with lots of laughter; at times they were as mischievous as Santa’s “Naughty Elves”. Poor Santa threatened them all with coal in their stockings and they didn’t care.

This year, with many families facing financial problems and with COVID, our group brought smiles and laughter to families when they went to our loca- tions or to the Christmas light-up parade in November. The children’s smiles and laughter when they saw Santa and his elves were joyous. So many wanted to come to give us hugs and we tried to maintain social distancing but with children, sometimes they move so fast, my elves couldn’t catch them in time. Numerous times parents would bring their children, who took money from their piggy banks to donate to our cause. Wow!!! What else can I say.

The first night we set up it was -18 with a wind. The elves’ masks were freezing up, they were wearing hot packs in the boots and mitts and wearing two winter coats to stay warm. They never grumbled, lost their smiles, laughter, and dance moves. They felt it was their duty to pick on poor Santa.

Almost every night we filled our trucks with donations of toys, food items, and clothes. To date, we were able to raise close to $4,000 in financial donations. I just can’t say enough about the generosity of the residents of Vegreville and from the surrounding area. I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to everyone who helped to make this project the success it was. On behalf of the Vegreville Christmas Bureau, the volunteers, Santa’s Naughty Elves, and the enforcement agencies, we would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Everybody stay safe.”

Ken Podoborozny added, “This whole gig has been a wonderful experience. We had a great team involved with it.”