The Bonnyville Centralized High School's Santa's Elves were busy last week wrapping approximately 2,000 gifts they had collected and bought over the past few months.
Students and staff from BCHS, along with other members of the community, gathered in the school's gymnasium on Dec. 16 to wrap all of the toys the Santa's Elves were able to collect.
“There are quite a bit of gifts. We have a lot of bags over there,” said BCHS student Robert Highberg, who was at his second Santa's Elves wrapping party.
“I think Santas Elves is awesome. It is something fun to do and it is good for the community,” added Highberg. “It teaches me how to wrap gifts too so that is always good.”
The large number of gifts that were piled up in the BCHS gym is due to a significant rise in families that applied to the local program.
“We are wrapping for 461 children and we are supporting 177 families,” said organizer and teacher Janice Zazulak.
“I think we are up 120 children from last year. It is a significant increase.”
The drop in oil prices has lead to a downturn in the region, resulting in more families in need and less people in a position to donate to the program
Even though the economy isn't in the greatest state the residents of Bonnyville still stepped up and were able to help the Santa's Elves collect the gifts they needed.
“We didn't get as many gifts from the community but we still gained a lot of financial support, so we were able to go out and purchase a lot of gifts for all of the children,” said Zazulak.
“The community is absolutely amazing and we are very thankful for Bonnyville and the surrounding area. People are very generous with their support.”
Last year the program was able to supply a special Christmas gift to 343 children in the community – 188 girls and 155 boys.
While Santa's Elves saw a lot more children apply to their program the staff and students at the school were able to go out and round up the support to meet their needs.
“Other businesses have stepped up and supported the Santa's Elves,” said Zazulak. “Based on the drop in the number of people who live in the area some business weren't able to support like other years, but it just seems like everyone is helping each other and pulling each other up when times are tough.”
The Santa's Elves program, which has been going on since the 1970's, was open to students in all grades. The group put out donations boxes in businesses around Bonnyville for people to drop off unwrapped toys, the Santa's Elves committee of staff and students then collected the toys and organized them into different age groups.
“The students are so amazing. I have a key group of students who are helpful. Then I have a group of boys with trucks who have been going on and picking up toys. They have all been doing a good job of representing the school here at BCHS and the Santa's Elves.”
After the wrapping party was over, the gifts were collected by the Knights of Columbus and distributed on Saturday. The group of volunteers also took the time to go out and deliver food hampers to families who had registered for them through the Friendship Centre or Knights of Columbus.
