Empty Stocking Fund: Surrey Christmas Bureau finds a house

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The Surrey Christmas Bureau nearly didn’t have a house this 12 months.

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Yearly across the holidays, the charity helps as much as 2,000 households with grocery present playing cards and toys. That’s a variety of toys, and the group must put them someplace.

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Luckily, on the final minute, the bureau was capable of get its outdated digs again within the former Safeway complicated at 10355 King George Blvd.

“We didn’t discover out about that until mid-September, and we wish to be in our headquarters by the start of October,” mentioned Lisa Werring, the bureau’s government director. “So there was a little bit of a panic. However house is getting more durable and more durable to seek out right here in Surrey. The event is rising at such a tempo right here that the form of constructing that we want is more and more troublesome to seek out. Particularly in central Surrey, which is the place we actually must be.”

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They moved in “within the nick of time” on Nov. 14.

The Surrey Christmas Bureau is B.C.’s largest non-denominational Christmas charity, serving about 2,000 low-income households (together with over 4,500 youngsters) annually. In 2021, the bureau supplied nearly $190,000 in grocery vouchers to households in want or over 21,000 meals.

A number of the cash for these vouchers comes from The Province’s Empty Stocking Fund. Now in its 104th 12 months, the ESF will depend on donations from readers to assist Decrease Mainland charities and Christmas bureaus lending a serving to over the vacations.

“The help that we get from the Empty Stocking Fund and The Province readers is prime,” Werring mentioned.

The variety of households appears to be rising annually, she says.

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“I imply, we’re nonetheless accepting purposes,” she advised Postmedia Information per week after transferring into the brand new outdated location. “We’re at over 1,800 requests for assist already, and our deadline for purposes is Dec. 2. So I absolutely anticipate to see over 2,000 requests for assist this 12 months. It’s rising year-over-year.”

The bureau was at simply over 1,800 households complete for 2021.

With Surrey a hub for brand new Canadians, the bureau sees greater than its share of immigrant households in want.

“I anticipate to see some households from Ukraine come by means of this 12 months,” she mentioned. “I’ve acquired some calls from companies which are working to resettle Ukrainian households.”

This 12 months, like many organizations, the bureau goes again into in-person mode following two years of tight COVID-19 restrictions. This implies drawing on the 300 or so volunteers, like Victor and Jenny Wong. The couple has been married for 50 years, and volunteering with the SCB for seven.

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“Day-after-day it’s a special situation,” Victor mentioned. “Nevertheless it will get so busy throughout December that it’s mind-boggling.”

Probably the most gratifying a part of volunteering is seeing the appears on youngsters’s faces when he arms them a toy.

“I at all times seize a teddy bear and provides it to them,” he mentioned. “They’ve by no means seen something prefer it. Their dad and mom should inform them, ‘Say thanks.’”

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