By Olivia McDonald

Community Comes Together To Save Christmas Hampers

Dec 17, 2018 | 12:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It was a busy morning for a few elves at the Seniors Resource Centre today. The annual Christmas Hampers were being prepared for delivery after being damaged late last week. 

Friday morning, organizers of the Christmas hampers walked into the basement of the Seniors Resource Centre to find the gifts sitting in nearly 4 inches of water.

These hampers had been filled with donations from members of the community and sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, a pipe burst and caused some serious damage to the gifts. 

“A whole lot of disappointment, a whole lot of panic, we had to have a few teary moments,” says Prince George COS general manager Lola-Dawn Fennell.

“I was really heartbroken. I was really upset because I was like how are we going to do this? Are people going to lose their food for Christmas? It was very heartbreaking for me and I was like okay I can’t focus on my feelings I need to get these people their Christmas,” adds Coordinator of Christmas Hampers, Taylor McLeod.

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Some may see it as a Christmas miracle but with some help from members of the community, the Hampers will be delivered on time. 

“Well with the help of a whole bunch of absolutely amazing volunteers and donors who pitched in and two days of work everything was sorted, recreated, repacked or whatever it was that needed to happen. So this morning we are at delivery point, on schedule and nobody is short anything, it’s working out just fine. Bad news turned into good news,” adds Fennell. 

There are roughly 200 families and seniors that will receive hampers this year and a handful of volunteers that can let out a sigh of relief.