Santa’s workshop in Mississauga has started wrapping presents and preparing them for families in need across the Greater Toronto Area. Packages are put together by corporate volunteers who take time off work to give back to the community.
Sarah Rutka, co-founder of Holiday Helpers, a charity whose mission is to provide a one-time personalized Christmas package to families, said it makes the hard work worth it with the thank-you letters from kids at the end.
She said people get referred to the program by a social worker, identifying a family in need of help.
“Once they qualify for the program, they get to fill out a wish list, for themselves and all the kids and it’s very specific,” Rutka said.
She said the wish list is then matched with a donor who has the budget for it and then they go shopping and drop off the listed items around this time of the year.
“These are all packages that have been dropped off by donors and they’re gonna sit there until we get a chance to go through them,” Rutka said.
She said in a couple days, the entire grid will be full as the donors drop off more packages.
Rutka said the common grid spots are where the packages sit until they are wrapped and then boxed for delivery
“There are some packages that are already done and will be dropped off in the next few days,” she said.
Boxes of artificial Christmas trees ring about the warehouse floor where unwrapped presents wait to be packaged. Rutka said the families can opt to get a Christmas tree as well, and most take one.
Lisa Bruno, a volunteer with Holiday Helpers, said this is her first time volunteering for the charity. It is a lot of work, but she said it’s very rewarding.
“I just think, you know, we have so much, and you have to give back somehow, you can’t always just take-take-take,” Bruno said.
Rutka said the families come from various organizations including, “women’s shelters, the school board, police victim services, a lot of immigrant organizations, native aboriginal organizations, food banks and mental health organizations.
“We do this every year, we’ve been doing this for the past 25 years,” Rutka said.
Rutka said she started this organization with her sister April and the Salvation Army when they lived in Brampton.
“I was in high school, April was in university, she was volunteering with the Salvation Army and in Brampton there was a family that lost their home in a fire, and everyone was just coming together and giving them stuff,” she said.
Rutka said her family didn’t have any money, so they helped by giving in kind with a Christmas tree and decorations.
“The Salvation Army came back to us and said that made the kids feel normal, they knew Santa would be able to find them,” she said.
Rutka said the charity became official in 2004 and they made this seasonal because the sisters have full-time jobs.
“Every year we got a little bit bigger, so we started adding more stuff, at first it was just Christmas trees, then we added grocery cards,” she said.
Rutka said one of the things that is included in the packages is a grocery gift card with a minimum amount of $150 on it.
“We will often give families more, so if it's a bigger family we will give them $200, $250... a lot of them come from food bank so we know there is a lot of food insecurity,” she said.
Rutka said some families don’t have any winter coats, and they get so happy when they get a sweater.
“We get feedback like they don’t have a heater in their apartment because they’re in Toronto Housing or something, so we know they need special items,” she said.
Rutka said every package is customized to what they need.
“Our goal is 1,150 families. Our high-end goal will be 1,200 so we don’t know if we will get there,” she said.
The 2023 Holiday Helpers Report states the organization helped 1,149 families last year including 926 in GTA, 149 in Hamilton and 74 in Durham.
Based on the report, over 3,500 volunteers came together to support the families and helped sponsor 4,311 people in total.
Bruno said it’s hard to see people struggle especially when you see young parents on the application forms.
“How can they do everything on their own and a lot of people’s (family) live all over, so they need help,” Bruno said.
She said Holiday Helpers are here to be their family because there is a chance they might not have one.
Bruno said she plans on continuing to be a part of this “wonderful charity.”
“The two girls who started this charity, April and Sarah, are wonderful, they’re very nice to us,” she said.
Bruno said she is very proud of them for what they have done and their accomplishment is incredible.
“Especially with the number of families they’re trying to help out is a huge, huge number and for those two women to be responsible for those 1,200 families is just wow,” she said.
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