The entire team for the Tigh-Na-Mara Toy Drive celebrating another record-breaking year, bringing in over $30,000 in monetary donations, and over 2,500 toys. (Tigh-Na-Mara Toy Drive)

By Jordan Davidson

big haul

‘We broke all of our records:’ Parksville toy drive once again sets new donation records

Nov 30, 2023 | 4:14 PM

PARKSVILLE — It’s another record-setting year for the Tigh-Na-Mara Toy Drive.

The 15th annual event far surpassed last year’s record-breaking haul, with donations once again going to the Society of Organized Services (SOS) Caring for Community at Christmas campaign.

Marketing manager with Tigh-Na-Mara Suzy Kirkland said the donations started to pour in during the first few weeks of the campaign leading up to their Wednesday, Nov. 29 breakfast buffet.

“With the event yesterday (Nov. 29), we broke all of our records. We did $19,000 roughly last year, and almost $31,000 this year in just cash and gift card donations.”

A total of $30,816.40 in monetary donations was collected, along with 2,527 toys and gifts, and 33 bikes for the Bikes for Tykes program.

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A grant from RBC worth $1,500 was also included.

Kirkland said despite the cost of living pinching people’s finances, she was proud to see the community rally for an important cause.

“It’s a wonderful community, I think also last year… it was a year after two years of COVID so I think people were still hesitant to come out. We saw lulls in the people coming on Wednesday last year, where there were no lulls this year. We don’t have the final numbers of how many came to the buffet, but it was constantly busy all morning.”

Organizers and directors from Tigh-Na-Mara and the SOS celebrated this year’s incredible toy drive with Santa himself during their Wednesday, Nov 29 buffet breakfast and donation drop-off event. (Tigh-Na-Mara Toy Drive)

Staff at Tigh-Na-Mara voluntarily donate portions of their pay cheques to the Bikes for Tykes program.

“It can be as little as a dollar and up taken off of their paycheque every two weeks, and that money taken off goes towards buying bikes from Canadian Tire,” said Kirkland. “They give us a deal on the bikes and we buy bikes for the kids. Last year it was 25 bikes, and this year we were able to donate 33 bikes and some helmets.”

Donated cash is used to buy grocery gift cards, so families can purchase the food they want.

Families in need can head down to the SOS’s Toy Shop and pick out the presents they want free of charge.

“They (SOS) have a fantastic shop, a huge room that they fill with toys. People in need register and they can go in and shop for their kids, they’re not just given random toys, they can go in and specifically pick out the toys for their children so they have something under the tree at Christmas.”

For more information on the program, you can click here to go to the SOS’s website.

Registration for the program is open until Dec. 21 for anyone in the Oceanside region and the grocery gift cards are also available to adults and seniors without children.

Registration for the program must be done in person with the SOS at 245 Hirst Ave. W in Parksville. (250-248-2093)

(Tigh-Na-Mara Toy Drive)

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNOW