A small collective of care providers in Kimberley, Ravens Nest Nanny Share, have initiated a community toy drive.
Headed up by Raven Poirier and Kalista Lizee, the drive has raised $3832 for gifts, and has purchased over 500 items and 42 local gift cards.
“2020 has brought a lot of challenges and struggles to our community, this holiday season is this first that our Helping Hands Food Bank has been unable to provide its gift program to families due to covid 19 protocols,” said Poirier. “This news hit our community hard as many families in Kimberley rely on this service each year. We at Ravens Nest were heartbroken to hear the news, as we ourselves have experienced the pure kindness of the Helping Hand gift program in our lives and know how deeply it can impact families during the holidays.
“This year we have been able to provide gift boxes to 38 local families and 10 youth living independently as well as 20 gift bags for Kimberley Alternate school. We are so proud of how our community has come together for this toy drive to make it resounding success.
“We would like to give special mention and thank you our largest supporters this year Rick and Daphne Hammond who made an extremely generous $1500 donation without them we wouldn’t have been able to be as successful as we have been. We would also like to give a special thank you to Carly Marsh at Grubstake Pizza for her incredible donation of 86 gift cards for every single gift box we are sending out this week.
“We would like to thank all the members of the community who donated the founding, bottles and cans and gifts that have helped make the holidays great for local families, we are a small community full of people with huge hearts and for that we are truly blessed.”