With Christmas just days away, firefighters in Corner Brook are making a public plea for donated toys to help the children of families in need this holiday season.
The firefighters in the city have been holding toy drives for 37 years, but this is the first time in more than a decade that they’re needing more help from the public.
Firefighter Gord Hamlyn, organizer of the drive, said there have been more families coming forward than they have toys for this year.
According to Hamlyn, more work goes into the toy drive than many people can appreciate.
“This is 37 years that we’ve been doing this, and there’s thousands and thousands of dollars that have gone out,” Hamlyn said.
“What most people don’t realize is that we start again — as soon as this is over, we start again for next year.”
Hamlyn said they have enough toys for about 250 families, but there are still 64 families to be gifted.
Thankfully for Hamlyn, donations have still been steadily coming into the fire department — including one from Academy Canada.
“We got a donation from the school of $200 and a bunch of staff decided to go out today,” said Andrea Barrett, who works with the school.
“We just came from Wal-Mart actually, and brought a bunch of toys, so we feel really good about what the firefighters do,” she added.
Hamlyn said he has faith that the people of his community will come through in the final days before Christmas.