Great turn-out for KDSS Christmas Knights food and toy drive

A total of 130 Kincardine District Secondary School students and volunteer drivers helped collect non-perishable food and new toys for the Christmas Hamper program, Saturday morning.

This was the largest turn-out in the past few years, said Christmas Knights co-ordinator Lana Spettstoesser. The other co-ordinator is Aidan Kober who was absent.

"We had 25 routes, from Bruce Avenue in the south to Lorne Beach in the north," said Lana. "The Grade 9 and Grade 12 students made up most of our volunteers."

KDSS teacher Lisa Connelly, who has helped with the event for the past 15 years, said it is always a good time and the students have fun doing it. The food and toy drive has been operating for 19 years; former teacher Barb Burgess started it while she was still teaching at KDSS.

Heather Finnie, co-ordinator of the Christmas Hamper program, said it's always amazing to see the huge number of students and volunteers participating, and the great mountain of food and toys.

"We have 175 hampers to fill this year," she said. "That's about the same as last year. We have 103 repeats from 2014, which means there are 60 different people this year."

Finnie said there are quite a few singles and families in this year's program. "Our hamper committee toured the Huron County Christmas Bureau in Goderich to see what we could do differently or more effectively. What we would like to do next year is allow families to 'shop' for their own toys and clothes."

She said a lot of gifts for teenagers and adults have been received this year; however, at St. Anthony's Church, there was a request submitted for these types of gifts.

Volunteers will now spend Monday to Wednesday packing the hampers, finalizing them by Thursday, and they will be distributed on Friday.