ABOUT
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Each year arrangements are made with The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund Warehouse for MCC Toronto to receive delivery of approximately 1300 boxes in total – which go to needy kids in the Riverdale and Thorncliffe Park Drive areas of Toronto.
About 8 volunteers from Santa’s warehouse accompany the truck on its deliveries. The volunteers hand-bomb all 1300 boxes up a short flight of stairs into Room 109.
This large delivery of boxes to MCC Toronto usually occurs the late November, but can often not arrive until the first week of December. The mid-week delivery allows The Clauses to digitally route the boxes in preparation for sorting day. Then each box is moved into its route for the delivery elves to pick up that weekend.
It takes a couple of hours to hand-bomb the boxes into giant stacks by area(Thorncliffe/Riverdale)
MCC Toronto Star Box Depot History
The MCC Toronto Star Box Depot began in 1991, when Ernie Lacasse introduced himself to Hank Condie, who had come to church to try to recruit delivery volunteers to help him deliver boxes in Riverdale. Hank had been delivering the Star Boxes for about 25 years at the time, along with his Kiwanis members, and as the membership aged he found himself with fewer and fewer volunteers. The number of boxes, however were growing. He needed help. Ernie suggested the church could help in a bigger way and perhaps take a portion of the large Riverdale route from Hank. Hank thought it was a great idea and Ernie began his official role as the MCC Toronto resident Santa Claus.
In 2005, Ernie retired and hung up his Santa hat. Mrs. & Mrs. Claus (Romelda Morson & Heather Magee) began their long association with the program at that stage. Over their term, Romelda and Heather have automated the routing and sorting of the boxes to make handling such a large number of boxes more efficient, and have required approximately from 50-75 volunteers each year to be delivery elves, usually around the first week of December each year. You can discover more history about the MCC Toronto Depot by reading about the two Delivery Areas below.
About 5 days prior to receiving the actual boxes, the coordinators are able to route the boxes from our delivery list and generate digital delivery route lists and delivery maps that we print for each route These route lists also determines the sorting lists we work from to sort the boxes correctly. Each route can have different numbers of boxes, but we try to average about 12 stops per route, knowing that the average family has 2 kids per family, each car gets about 20-25 boxes, and vans often get double that amount and small cars a few less.
On “sorting” day, with the help of about 7-8 volunteers (the room at this point is pretty full, and less sorters actually works better so no one is tripping over each other). Sorting usually takes about 2-3 hours, and by the time the elves are done the room is full of tall stacks of boxes, each stack representing a route.
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For about three weeks prior to delivery day, we advertise for volunteer elves to help deliver. This is a tradition for almost all those who volunteer, and many have delivered boxes for as long as MCC Toronto has been a depot, and there are always new elves each year who have yet to experience the joy of giving a gift to a kid on Christmas. So it doesn’t take long to get our volunteers.
An email reminder goes out to all registered delivery elves to remind elves to pick up their boxes Sunday.
On pickup day, the elves come and pick up their boxes for delivery, along with a map of their route and a list of stops to make with addresses and phone numbers, to make deliveries easier. With a bit of quick instruction and some cheerful happy holiday greetings, boxes are loaded into sleighs of all sizes (even the cooper mini sleigh can take a full route of boxes!) and elves go straight to work. While elves don’t have to deliver the boxes on that weekend, many do. Other elves call the families first, and deliver throughout the week when it is convenient for them.
The following Sunday is Undeliverable Return day. Any boxes the elves can not successfully deliver, are brought back. The Clauses take over the task of locating the families, with the help of the Santa Box Warehouse. Usually we are successful in redelivering at least half of the returned boxes that week, only because we have great help from the Warehouse and our amazing volunteers that so enthusiastically want to be elves and help any way they can.
In 2021, Romelda and Heather retired as the MCC Toronto Depot Coordinators after purchasing a home in Midland, Ontario, too far away to remain as coordinators. That marked the beginning of the new coordinators. - Cathy and Graham White began in 2021 coordinating the Thorncliffe route only. They were very grateful for the actual and emotional support from their predecessors. In 2022, they figured they were ready to reclaim the Riverdale route as well… to be continued 😊
FUND HISTORY
Reprinted with permission of The Toronto Star
The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund was established in 1906 by Toronto Star Founder, Joseph E. Atkinson. Atkinson knew of poverty first-hand. His father was killed in a tragic accident when he was six months old. Left with eight young children to raise, his mother struggled to support the family.
It was a very special Christmas in Atkinson’s own childhood that brought out his dedication to help the poor. As the story goes, one day young Joseph was watching other children skate on the pond. A lady approached and asked him why he wasn’t skating. When she heard his sad tale, she bought him his first pair of skates for Christmas. Atkinson never forgot the warmth and generosity of the stranger who made this Christmas Day the happiest of his childhood.
Years later, Atkinson used The Toronto Star Newspaper to tell readers the stories of other needy children. He asked readers to contribute money, which was used to buy approximately 100 Christmas gifts. The gifts of fruit, candy, socks and mitts were distributed through his local Toronto church, Little Trinity. This tradition lives on with a Toronto Star reporter still writing daily articles about the plight of needy children prior to Christmas.
The gift packages may have changed with the times but the basic concept remains. Today, bright gift boxes are filled with a warm sweater, socks, mittens, hat, book, toy, candy and dental hygiene kit. The merchandise is purchased directly from manufacturers at significant cost-savings. Great consideration is given to each item purchased for the gift box — quality, style, safety, value, variety and reflect age, not gender. 100% of all money donated is spent on purchasing the items contained in the gift boxes. The Toronto Star pays for all administrative costs to the Fund. Therefore, only cash contributions can be accepted, not donations of product or services-in-kind.
For the first time in its history, The Toronto Star Claus Fund expanded its services in 2002 to assist families in Brampton and Mississauga, as well as Toronto. In 2004, the program expanded yet again to help children in Ajax and Pickering. To help raise funds, the Toronto Star,
The Brampton Guardian, The Mississauga News and The Ajax-Pickering News Advertiser feature regular stories in their papers eight weeks prior to Christmas.
Children’s names are submitted to the Star by Ontario Works and more than 90 other social service agencies in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Ajax and Pickering. Just as they were in 1906, the gift boxes are still delivered to the homes of the children by volunteers such as church groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, etc. Over one hundred years later, the generosity of our readers continues to make Christmas a little bit happier for 45,000 less-fortunate children!
The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund fundraising goal is $1.6 million each year.
All donors will receive a tax receipt for income tax purposes after the campaign in January. Acknowledgement cards are available upon request by calling 416-869-4847. Donor contributions will be published in the newspaper during the campaign until mid-January. All contributions are published in the newspaper as a full- page notice. Options available are as follows: Example #1: In memory of Mrs. Smith; #2: Anonymous; #3: In lieu of gifts to ABC Co. clients.
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While we have many volunteer elves delivering the boxes – we encourage everyone to make a donation to the Santa Claus Fund. As one of the few charities these days that uses 100% of the funds for the kids, it is a great way to make sure 100% of your donation money goes where it belongs! The Star covers 100% of the administrative costs of the fund, so you know your donation is going to fill the gift boxes.
Each box costs about $35 to fill (learn what goes in each box). Please consider making a donation – you can make a difference!