Santa throwing the first of many toys into a donation bin for the Great Nanaimo Toy Drive. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

Great Nanaimo Toy Drive kicks off to help 1,200 kids in need of Christmas joy

Nov 14, 2019 | 3:49 PM

NANAIMO – The Nanaimo community is banding together once more to make sure no children go without a present under the tree this holiday season.

The 37th annual Great Nanaimo Toy Drive kicked off on Thursday, Nov. 14 with the first donations to a large collection bin at Woodgrove Centre.

Toys will now be collected at bins throughout Nanaimo and by a wide variety of businesses.

Carolyn Iles with the toy drive says even after 37 years of generosity from the Nanaimo community, help is still desperately needed.

“We have one out of five children in Nanaimo living in poverty. There’s been a slight decrease in the number of children who are in poverty but the total percentage has remained the same.”

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Roughly 1,200 children will be helped this year. Iles said this is inline with the number of toys handed out last year to parents.

There are numerous ways to help with the Great Nanaimo Toy Drive and Iles said it’s always nice to have some fun while doing it.

“We have many businesses which during their Christmas parties, instead of bringing a gift for each other they bring an unwrapped toy and they get they joy of seeing what everybody’s bringing and then they donate it to the toy drive.”

A new event is happening this year to hopefully boost the number of toys donated.

A train will run from Steve Marshall Ford to the Nanaimo train station on Saturday, Nov 30. Santa will be on hand taking photos for the cost of a toy donation.

Families can register at Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes locations until Nov. 30. A registration session will also happen at University Village Shopping Centre from Dec. 2 to 6.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit