The Airdrie 1st Club, formerly known as the Airdrie Lioness Club, is hosting its annual hamper program this month for those in need, and are looking for donations in the form of money, gift cards, gingerbread house kits, and winter clothing.
Club president Helen Gitzel said the hamper program typically includes a basket full of food and gifts for applicants, but since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been modified to include gift cards only. This year, she hopes to reintroduce gifts to the hamper program on a small scale.
“Because we don’t have to isolate everything for 72 hours like we did last year, we’re able to put some of this stuff into bags,” she said. “We’re in a lot better place this year.”
She added the club has received more than 200 applications for the hamper program as of press time, and was expecting to see that number rise to more than 300 by the application deadline of Dec. 12.
“These are people who may or may not have a Christmas at all if it wasn’t for us,” she said.
Gitzel said the demand for the program has grown since the club’s inception in 1977. She added on average, the hamper program costs a total of $100,000 to $150,000 to put together.
“Our program has grown almost every year for the amount of people that need help,” she said. “It’s important to us, because even [donations for] our smallest hampers just aren’t coming in the way they did, the way we need them to.”
Gitzel added the club is hoping to provide parents with gift cards so they can go out and buy their kids something to put under the tree come Dec. 25.
“Our recipients are really enjoying the gift cards because they get to be enabled,” she said. “They get to go and get little Johnny or little Susie that gift the child’s been asking for because they know Christmas is coming.
“And for me, it makes my heart grow every time I get a sponsor.”
She added normally, the club has about 200 people who sponsor hampers in any given year, but this year the number is much lower – around 17 so far. She noted the Sirens Charity Hockey Game hosted on Dec. 4 – a friendly exhibition game pitting RCMP/Municipal Enforcement officers and local firefighters against each other – helped bring in some much-needed donations.
“Of course [it’s] a great help, but I hate to say, it’s a drop in the bucket [of what we need],” she said.
Even though donations are low, Gitzel said it is even more important to continue with the program during the pandemic, adding applicants have faced a variety of challenges, such as being laid off work, or having faced health-related issues.
She is calling on all community members to donate what they can this year.
“Airdrie has been in past years and up to now extremely generous,” she said, adding donations will be accepted until Dec. 18.
“We are asking that everyone dig as deep as they possibly can and give us whatever they can.”
Anyone interested in information regarding monetary and gift card donations or sponsorship opportunities are encouraged to visit airdrie1st.com. The club is also hopeful for donations of gingerbread kits, and new or newly knitted winter wear.
Carmen Cundy, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @carmenrcundy
