It’s mission accomplished for the 75th annual North Bay Santa Fund.
Over 450 hamper baskets were packed on Thursday and delivered on Friday to wrap up the campaign.
Officials say a record-high $190,000 was raised, which met the principal fundraising goal of covering costs because there were fewer than expected applications submitted for the holiday food and children’s gifts.
“We start planning for the Santa Fund in the spring, beginning with an estimate of how many families and toys for the children are needed,” says co-chair Geoff Richardson. “We projected 600 families, but to our surprise, we only received applications from 430 families, which requires about 468 baskets. This included 20 Ukrainian families celebrating their first Christmas with us in North Bay.”
The Santa Fund says the pandemic, supply chain issues and other factors inflated the costs for both food and gifts to a daunting total of $217,000 if the usual 600 applications were approved.
“On behalf of 430 families, the countless volunteers and all of you who gave so generously, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a festive New Year,” says co-chair Tracy Richardson-Sloan.
Community volunteers were welcomed back to help pack and deliver the baskets this year after pre-selected teams were involved the past couple of years because of the pandemic.
