This year saw a very large pile of donated clothing, blankets and footwear in Parkland Ambulance’s storage bay, ready to be transported to the YWCA Stepping Stones for dispersal.
Representatives from Parkland Ambulance, The Gateway Mall and Anderson Chrysler were on hand Tuesday afternoon to get the process underway and conclude Wrapped up for the Holidays.
The annual Christmas partnership between Parkland Ambulance, the Gateway Mall, Anderson Motors Ltd., and CTV handed off bags of donated scarves, toques, boots, and gloves as the annual nine-week campaign ended.
Parkland Ambulance spokesperson Lyle Karasiuk thanked the people of Prince Albert for their generosity.
“We’re wrapping up Wrapped up for the holidays once again. This is year 17 off Wrapped up For the Holidays and as you can see we have a huge a pile of stuff. Once again, thanks to the generosity of Prince Albert and area residents.”
Karasiuk said he talks with Gateway Mall General Manager Sharon Faul throughout the campaign to make sure the collection bin doesn’t get too full. He said the number of items that are donated can be deceptive.
“We just keep piling it up,” he said. “It just piles up and I look at it early in December, usually when we kick off the campaign and I say ‘oh there’s not much here and then all of a sudden, it just appears.
“We end up with thousands of pieces. We’ve never counted it. I don’t how many thousands of pieces we’ve collected over the years, from blankets to shoes, to mittens to toques, workwear, I see a pair of pants in here, I mean Homemade stuff, bought stuff. It’s all kinds of stuff.”
Karasiuk thanked sponsors Gateway Mall, CTV and Anderson Motors for the support each year for the last 17 years.
“We’re so grateful every year. I’m just blessed every year that we can provide to those in need some warm winter gear and some other stuff like blankets and toques and mittens and socks. You name it, we got it,” Karasiuk said.
The collection points are at Anderson Motors and the Gateway Mall. Nathan Jones of Anderson Motors said both last year and this year they received a truck and a half worth of donations.
“Year after year, we’re always amazed by the generosity that we can celebrate because every year seems to be more and more,” Jones said.
Faul added that the bin at the Gateway Mall gets a bit of everything to keep people warm from toques and mitts to shoes and blanket.
“We get inundated with calls at our office. ‘Do you have the bin out again this year?’ We are cleaning up before Christmas, can we bring stuff down? Like Lyle said, absolutely every time we talk, there’s more in the bin and so we have to keep making a separate pile somewhere so that we can get it all here eventually,” Faul said.
“Just thanks to the generosity of the folks at the surrounding community city of Prince Albert for participating. We’re just happy to be a convenient location for them to be able to drop that stuff off. It’s greatly needed in our community and we’re happy to be part of it,” she added.
Donations were to be dropped off at the YWCA in order to be passed onto other agencies,
“They’ll make sure that people in need will get it,” Karasiuk said.
Karasiuk added that the fundraiser continues to grow incrementally every year.
The concept was originally just blankets but as it continued people began to donate everything they could. Karaisuk said it starts as soon as the campaign opens.
“It starts as soon as the snow flies. The phone starts ringing and people start bringing the stuff no matter what,” he said. “We’re just happy to be the conduit to people in need and I think all of us would agree that very much that we’re happy to make that donation.”
Faul is happy to continue the tradition and sees it as a way of saying thank you for supporting the Gateway Mall and Anderson Motors.
“Thanks for being part of the community and giving support back to those agencies that need it,” she said. “We’re just happy to be a conduit, to be able to drop the stuff off at a convenient location, open seven days a week. People can at their leisure pack it up, drop it off, and then we take care of getting it to the folks that need it the most.”
Jones said that they were also happy to be one of the supporting drop off points for Wrapped up for the Holidays.
“It’s just making it easier for people to donate, not having to make those phone calls.
Knowing that you can donate at the Gateway Mall or at Anderson Motors or down here at Parkland Ambulance. It is just making it a lot easier for folks to get things where needs to go,” Jones said.
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