Kiwanis Club wraps up toy drive with $30,000 in donations

By

Alex Lambert


January 29, 2025

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Pembroke – Three not-for-profit community organizations were the beneficiaries of one of the biggest fundraisers to come out of the Kiwanis Club of Pembroke last Wednesday.

The club’s annual Christmas Food and Toy Drive has helped make the holidays easier for hundreds of families since early 2020 and raised $200,000 in the process. Club members volunteered under a giant tree at the Pembroke Mall as they collected toys, food and monetary donations from the end of October right up until Christmas Eve.

All the funds gathered by the Kiwanians went back where they came from, the local community. The club was proud to present three cheques valued at over $30,000 on January 22. The board decided to allocate 50 per cent of the funding, a total of $15,306 to St. Joseph’s Community Food Bank and split the two remaining quarters between the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP) soup kitchen and The Grind for a donation of $7,653 each.

Christmas Toy and Food Drive Co-Chairs Jay McLaren and Mack Thrasher hosted Kiwanians, special guests from partner organizations and volunteers for an afternoon reflecting on the campaign. Visitors gathered at the Field House in Riverside Park to recognize the outpouring of support for the local initiative.

Mr. McLaren said he and Mr. Thrasher plan an annual end-of-year review for three main reasons: to report back to the club, show its volunteers some much-deserved appreciation and give back to other community advocates.

“If this is starting to sound like a lot of work, you’re getting the idea,” Mr. McLaren remarked.

Mr. Thrasher took a moment to thank his fellow Kiwanians, saying, “I’d like to recognize the friends of our community before anything. Without them, this club could not do the effort, the work or different projects we do.”

Mr. McLaren said he and Mr. Thrasher started the project about five years ago just before the global pandemic. He took the opportunity to thank the many “friends of Kiwanis” who contributed to the campaign since its start on October 23.

He first gave kudos to Kiwanians Karen Stewart and Mac Plaunt, who met at the food bank daily for over five weeks to accept and vet toy applications and record what each family wanted. He praised Constance McLeese and Bruce Fink for picking up money boxes every day from the day of kick-off right up until Christmas.

Additionally, he acknowledged David Metzger Jr. and Karen Metzger for doing the daily tally and running bank deposits daily. Mr. McLaren also thanked Kiwanian Brian Hugli for hosting a fundraising project at his blueberry ranch, which saw plenty of community support and kept volunteer helpers busy. He thanked their “toy elves” responsible for gift curation and packaging. He then recognized Kevin Malone for his countless trips to the mall to deliver the toys donated to the club every day.

“It takes garbage bags, huge garbage bags to do that. And I know that his vehicle is sometimes full to the ears with toys,” Mr. McLaren remarked. “The public at large thinks it’s still going on and they keep bringing more toys. Those toys are in storage for next year.”

He thanked his gift selection team of Tony and Joanne Parent, Joan Trudell, Val Barber, Valedia Richards and Marcel Mantha who sorted, organized and packed toys. In cross referencing family applications, parents’ suggestions and the gift recipient’s age, the team was able to accurately determine which gifts were best for who.

Mr. McLaren also thanked the Pembroke Metro for donating space for the “Toy Factory,” where families come to browse rows of toy tables. He told listeners the club uses a discrete number system where the variety of toys for each family is unpacked onto a specific number, and that the volunteers packing the bags have no idea who they’re making them for.

“By golly, we managed to give those toys that are asked for almost to the letter. You guys do just a fantastic job of that,” he said. “Some families have one, some has as many as four or five. So it takes more than one bag to assemble all this stuff. They do this quietly and without fanfare, and if you didn’t happen to stop in you would never know it was happening.”

Mr. McLaren reported the campaign raised $33,544 in monetary donations and spent just over $2,900 on toys and supplies. It provided Christmas toys to 257 children from 116 different families as a result. He said the program had also distributed toys to several other groups that serve less fortunate families, including the Boys & Girls Club (BGC), Renfrew County Community Poverty Action Network (CPAN) and Got You in Mind thrift store.

He said the toy elves, Ms. Parent and Ms. Trudell, are hard at work from the very start of the year looking for good gifts for kids of all ages. One thing Mr. McLaren mentioned was the surplus of donations for younger children, while groups like teenage boys are typically less represented.

He noted they also had plenty of help from other organizations and non-member supporters. He continued to say something that never changed over the years was the appreciation from gift recipients.

“Occasionally we get feedback. Every once in a while, someone will approach one of us and say, ‘I got toys from the Kiwanis Club at Christmas, and I could not believe the quality and the quantity of toys and how well they fit the needs of my kids.’ That’s your job, and you’ve done it well,” he said.

The first donation was a cheque to Jerry Novack, executive director of The Grind.

“You guys are doing an amazing job and it’s a well-oiled machine. We’re glad to be part of that, but it’s also nice to see that the funds that are raised go beyond Christmas,” Mr. Novack said. “We can now continue to do what you guys have started in December in making sure that the people’s and community’s needs are met.”

Kiwanis Club President Jeff Buske presented the second cheque to Muggsie Boland of SSVP soup kitchen.

“Jay will often start off saying something to me like, ‘We would have liked to gather more money for the three charities present today.’ Well in fact, Jay, Mack and Kiwanians, this is a huge, huge donation. This money will kickstart us into the year,” Ms. Boland said.

Ken Lovely of St. Joseph Community Food Bank accepted the third cheque from Mr. Buske. He said they serve about 148,000 meals every year and that thanks to the generous donations they’re finally able to purchase the building where the food bank operates.

“We really appreciate the fact that we get this kind of support from the Kiwanis Club,” he said. “Thank you to Kiwanians and all those who support the toy drive because it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people, especially the three organizations that benefit from the cash donations.”

In closing, Mr. McLaren thanked the Kiwanians, special guests from partner organizations and volunteers for their dedication and hard work on the campaign.

“We are very fortunate to have these kinds of efforts being put forward so Kiwanis is very happy to help with that where we can,” he said.