Winnipeg non-profit organizations are hoping for a sleighful of donations so vulnerable residents can receive a gift on Christmas morning.
Hygiene products, candy, clothing and “fun stuff” are on Main Street Project’s wish list until mid-December, when the donations will be stuffed into gift bags and given out to people accessing programming and those living in homeless encampments.
“It is important for us to be able to offer a gift to the folks that we serve. It does show care and compassion, and it does remind them that people care about them,” said executive director Cindy Titus.
BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS FILES
Main Street Project’s Cindy Titus, pictured at the local shelter’s clothing donation area, said it’s important to be able to offer gifts to vulnerable residents. The organization is accepting donations for its holiday wish list.
MSP began its Christmas initiative in 2017 and it has, since then, grown to be one of its largest donation drives. This year the non-profit expects to distribute more than 500 gift bags.
The gifts have 20 to 25 items in them, including playing cards, candy, word search and crossword puzzles, arts and crafts supplies, socks, underwear, hats and mitts.
Clients in MSP’s emergency shelter and withdrawal management services receive the items. The organization’s mobile outreach van drives around the city on Christmas morning delivering the gifts to encampment residents.
“Every community member we support has a gift to open on the morning of Dec. 25,” Titus said.
On the east side of the Red River, St. Boniface Street Links volunteers will rise early on Christmas to hand out stockings filled with oranges, candies, socks, mitts, thermal blankets, magazines and a candy cane to people living in encampments and transit shelters.
“This is to help them experience, maybe for the first time, Christmas morning,” said executive director Marion Willis.
In prior years Street Links distributed socks wrapped in decorative film, but Willis soon realized she wanted to do more to make the day memorable.
“We really try to keep the magic in Christmas,” she said. “People born into poverty often don’t have stories to tell about Christmas morning or Santa filling the stocking.”
Last year the organization handed out only six gift stockings, which Willis saw as a positive development, because it meant people were either housed or in a shelter. This year’s plan is for 30 to 40 stockings.
Siloam Mission is expecting to give out more than 300 gifts to clients who access its shelter and those who live in the non-profit’s housing projects.
In years prior, Siloam filled backpacks with gift items. This year, through a private donation and a partnership with Backpacks from Heaven, the organization will have more personalized gifts for clients, according to director of development Darren Nodrick.
Guests who access services at any 1JustCity location will receive a food kit and voucher in the days leading up to Christmas, as has been tradition for the non-profit for several years. The organization sees about 400 guests daily at its three drop-in centres.
Without donations from the public the offering wouldn’t be possible, said communications specialist Lara Thompson.
Titus said the volume of donations MSP collects during its Christmas drive allows the agency to also distribute items after the holidays, which helps to build relationships.
“Having something to offer, like a cup of coffee or a sandwich or one of these gift bags… we get to know the people that we support and help them meet their self-identified goals,” she said.
MSP is accepting donations until Dec. 13.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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