Mother’s gratitude sticks with volunteer
Isabelle Kwon was 11 when, as a scout, she started delivering gift boxes
It was only logical to 11-year-old Isabelle Kwon that she should knock as loudly as she could on the door in front of her.
The year was 2007, and it was the young scout’s first year delivering gift boxes for the Star’s Santa Claus Fund.
“I tried as hard as I could to knock as hard as possible,” Kwon, now 21, recalled of her strategy, as the group of uniformed scouts moved door-todoor in the East Mall and Rathburn Rd. building.
The doors in the apartment building were unusually thick. But when a young mother answered the door of one apartment, Kwon recalls with fondness one of the day’s gentler moments.
“She said she’d been hesitant to open the door,” Kwon said, her voice softening, “because she’d been scared by the really loud knocking.” The poignant moment quickly turned to overwhelming gratitude, as the woman’s young children scuttled up behind her and saw the brightly coloured gift boxes.
“When they saw that we had Santa Fund presents and all the nice little decorated boxes . . . her mood totally changed,” Kwon said.
“She was so grateful and happy to see us.”
The Star Santa Claus Fund is a charity initiative that provides and delivers Christmas gifts to 45,000 underprivileged children aged newborn to 12 across Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Ajax and Pickering. The presents are delivered by teams of volunteers.
Santa Claus Fund recipients receive a gift box with a warm shirt (toddlers get a fleece-lined tracksuit while newborn infants get a fivepiece set that includes onesies), a warm hat, warm gloves or mittens, socks, a toy, a book, cookies and dental hygiene items (aged 4 and up) inside. Every dollar raised goes di- rectly toward the cost of the gifts.
It’s the only present many of the kids will receive this holiday season, which is why the gift boxes aim to cover the basics and then some.
Scouts Canada has been a longtime supporter of the initiative, sending scores of volunteers dressed in uniform to deliver boxes every year. The group makes around 60 per cent of the deliveries every year.
“They’ve been partnered with the Santa Claus Fund for decades,” said Barb Mrozek, the Star’s director of charities and philanthropy. “This is part of their community service. We could not get the job done without their support.”
Kwon explained that giving back was an integral part of what they learned as scouts. In the spring, they sold daffodils for donations toward breast cancer research. In the winter, they helped with the Santa Claus Fund.
“The part about helping communities is sort of embodied into our Scout Law, which was like this little oath that we’d say at the start of every meeting,” she said.
“I still remember it almost word for word — it starts with, ‘A Scout is helpful and trustworthy.’ And the gift deliveries were a great way for us to put that ‘law’ into action.”
That mentality shaped who she is now, a decade later, she said.
After that first year, Kwon continued to help deliver Santa Claus Fund gifts for three more. “Looking back at it now, I’m able to appreciate more of the impact that we might have had on those families,” she told the Star.
“There’s nothing to lose by donating . . . All you can gain by doing that is making a family happy, even if you don’t ever meet them in your life.”
If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund or have a story to tell, please email santaclausfund@thestar.ca.