1,730 toys donated during Toys Days

The call went out this week for the community to bring in over 2,000 toys for Steinbach Community Christmas and it was a busy two days at Canadian Tire as a mountain of toys was created. 

“There’s going to be a massive amount of kids that are going to be extremely happy and have toys to play with the Christmas,” says Ken Dyck of Southeast Helping Hands. 

An unofficial count showed 1,730 toys were donated by 8pm on Wednesday when the collection was packed up for sorting.

The toys have been delivered to a sorting center and will be added to Christmas hampers that start going out on Monday, December 11th.

Dyck believes this might be enough to cover the needs this year. 

“I’m sure hoping so. With what we’ve got already, and with this, and there are a couple of other organizations bringing toys in... I hope we’re going to make it.” 

There are at least 2,010 children who will be getting a gift on Christmas morning thanks to the strong community support. 

“The need gets bigger every year, but everybody comes together,” says Dyck. “This community is amazing, just supports us 100 percent, both the food bank and Community Christmas.”

The first Christmas hampers will be ready to go out on Monday afternoon. 

Roger Blatz and Carolyn Peters are coordinating the hampers and they both say that it is amazing to see so many people respond to the call for help, to help our neighbours, friends and strangers to have a happy Christmas. 

The toy drive is over, but you can still make a monetary donation at the food bank on Main Street or through the Steinbach Community Christmas website. 

-With files from Corny Rempel, Adi Loewen, Carly Koop, Lexi Olifirowich

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