Local family gives big to Big Hearts Hamper Drive
Elissa Armitstead and her children seven-year-old Avery Urbanovitch and three-year-old Alix Christianson got to make a huge difference this holiday season when they donated two vehicles worth of toys to our local Big Hearts Hamper Drive.
“On Instagram, I’m an influencer, and the kids get sent, like, a lot of toys,” said Armitstead.
She explained that she didn’t start out on Instagram wanting to gain a following but, when she was posting photos of her daughter in baby outfits that she purchased from small businesses, she started to attract some attention. Her growth has been slow but in the past year or so she’s gotten interest from some brands that have sent a lot of toys her way.
“They started sending the kids boxes and boxes of toys. And I’m like, ‘Okay, yeah, that’s nice!’ The kids are so excited (to get them). But then (I thought) ‘Man, we don’t need all these toys.’,” she explained.
Because of the volume of toys that she was getting, she decided to let her children go through the toys to pick some that they wanted to enjoy and then leave the ones that they thought others might like more so that they could donate them.
Armitstead says that once her children understood what donating the toys meant, they were on board with the idea as they didn’t want other children to not have a toy to open this holiday season.
“They say, ‘We want to donate this and we want to donate this.’ So, the whole year we’ve put stuff aside and they’ve gotten, like, boxes of stuff together. I’m so proud of them,” she said.
In total the donation is over $2,000 of products and Armitstead said it took two vehicles to get the toys to the drop-off.
Armitstead’s most active on the social media platform Instagram at @elissa_a22. There, she produces family-oriented content. Lately, her family has been sharing some of their favourite locations and, of course, her children have also received some holiday toys this season.
Armitstead explained that this wasn’t what she thought would come of posting on Instagram but she is glad to be able to help our community.
“This was never a job that I even thought I was gonna get into. I didn’t even know what it was,” she said.
It’s actually not the first time that she’s been able to give back to the community as, when the Gaynor Family Regional Library brought back programming after the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to expand their Stay and Play program and Armitstead’s family was able to help with some toys.
She also explained that it’s not just about giving back to the community but it also benefits her children to be involved as they are learning about the needs in their community as well as about kindness.
Armitstead is happy to be able to make this donation and very glad that her kids are also on board with helping.
“It makes me feel good that the kids are completely on board with this. They’re like ‘We can give this to somebody that doesn’t have it.’ It makes me feel super proud of them,” she said.
If you are able to, Armitstead suggests looking at ways that you can give back to our local hamper programs or community in general.
