Local service agencies make season bright
45,000 GTA children from newborn to 12 will get gifts this year
The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund has been making the holidays a little merrier for children in need since1906 with the help of local community service agencies.
Each Christmas, the fund distributes boxes full of gifts and necessities to underprivileged children around the GTA, often to those from single-parent or newly landed immigrant families. This year, 45,000 children, from newborns to 12-year-olds, will receive boxes in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Ajax and Pickering.
While donations, fundraising efforts and volunteer work take care of the funding, assembly and distribution of the boxes, this long-standing tradition would be impossible without the help of community service agencies.
“We need these agencies because we have no other means of identifying the families that may be in need or struggling financially,” said Barb Mrozek, director of the Star’s charities and philanthropy.
About 60 per cent of the children the fund serves are from families whose members are on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program, and their families can apply through those programs. Around 10 per cent of boxes are donated to shelters, which distribute them.
But connecting with the remaining 30 per cent of families happens through the co-operation of agencies across the GTA.
“Without these community service agencies taking on this extra workload, we wouldn’t be able to provide for as many children,” Mrozek said.
Some 85 organizations and community service agencies partner with the Santa Claus fund to provide gifts to children who are in need.
Some organizations, like the Toronto District School Board and Toronto Public Health provide the Star with applications.
“They’re out there within the communities, within the schools, they see what’s happening, they see kids day after day. They know who requires some help,” Mrozek said.
Organizations like Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre and Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, which provide services for mothers who have recently immigrated to Canada and their families, are on this list as well.
Community groups like the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club do their part, too. The club is a small but integral part of the community, and its services create a family that spans an entire neighbourhood by providing activities for families to participate in.
“As a family registers even at a local community centre, they become part of a bigger family,” said Mrozek.
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