Rallying behind toy drive

More than half of $255,000 goal has been raised so far

Vehicles driving along along Highway 97 northbound Saturday morning were honking their horns in response to seeing Santa and his helpers smiling and waving at the side of the road.

Santa, along with volunteers from Stutters and the RCMP were on hand for the inaugural Stutters Toy Drive for the Salvation Army.

People could pull into the drive-thru and drop off new unwrapped toys and cash to support families in the community.

Overall, the toy drive collected two bins, eight boxes and six Santa sacks of toys along with $995 cash,

With Christmas just days away, the Westside Salvation Army is making its final push to gather donations for the holidays. The bells have been ringing around the communities of Westbank, West Kelowna, and Peachland since Nov. 13 and will continue to ring until Christmas Eve.

The Westside Salvation Army set a lofty Christmas goal of $255,000 to compensate for a particularly challenging year. According to Lenetta Parry of the Westside Salvation Army, to date, they have raised over half of its $255,000 goal.

While the need for the Salvation Army’s programs and services increased, so has the generosity from our community, said Jennifer Henson of the Westside Salvation Army.

“Clearly our community has rallied behind toy drives in the last couple weeks, but there is still more work to be done,” she said.

This year the Westside Salvation Army also added a virtual kettle to its annual fundraising campaign and set a goal of $10,000 which has not yet been reached.

All proceeds donated locally stay in the community and are used for local programs and services at Christmas and all year long.

Cash donations can be made at red kettles across our community until Dec. 24. Once the kettles are put away, there is still time to make a year-end charitable tax-deductible donation by Dec. 31 by donating securely online at westsidesa.ca, by telephone at 778484-9790, via mail or in person at 101- 3531 Old Okanagan Highway, B.C., V4T 3L7.

BARB AGUIAR/ Westside Weekly Clockwise from top: Leah Kirkham of Stutters waves at passing motorists with Santa at the Stutters inaugural Toy Drive Saturday morning; Kalesh and Nia Mitchell place their donations in the bin; Santa has a quick visit with River and Kohen Spillane, who then passed on a packet of cookies to the jolly old elf along with their toy donation; A large dog greets RCMP Const. Sherri Lund as she accepts a toy donation.