The Carman & District Christmas Cheer Board recently completed one of their busiest years yet, packing hampers for 175 local families and individuals.
On Dec. 19, close to 40 volunteers filled the community hall to pack the food, gifts, and hygiene items into boxes. The Elm Creek School Grade 6 class and three senior high students also came down to pack, along with the Carman Scouts, who bagged all the potatoes and onions for the hampers.
Cheer board director Deana Gauld said she can’t even begin to guess how many volunteers they had to drive and deliver the hampers this year, noting the entire ordeal was a whirlwind of people coming and going all day.
On a typical year, the cheer board packs around 150 hampers. They have staples like soup, pasta, sauce, canned fruit, cranberry sauce, stuffing, canned vegetables, potatoes, carrots, and a cake mix for dessert, on top of other things. Families also get a Co-op gift card to buy their Christmas dinner meat and anything else they may need. Each hamper also has a toy for all children in the family, complete with wrapping paper and tape, and new this year was hygiene packs for teens and adults.
