With the aid of strong community support, the Chatham Goodfellows lived up to their motto of “No Child Without a Christmas” again.
Tim Haskell, a member of the Goodfellows’ board of directors, said the organization provided food and toys for nearly 1,700 families and 1,460 children.
“It was a little bit more than last year. We were up about 100 families,” he said. “It shows you how the economy has fared. It’s worse than last year and the year before.”
It takes an army to feed the proverbial village. Haskell estimated at least 2,000 volunteers helped in various capacities this year.
“We have a great community that comes out to help get things done,” he said.
Support rolled in from corporations, businesses large and small, service clubs, churches, schools, and the citizens of Chatham-Kent.
This year’s Porchlight campaign, where volunteers go door-to-door in Chatham, raised more than $53,000. Street Sales, where volunteers set up outside certain local businesses to collect donations, saw an additional $30,700 raised.
In the end, Chatham Goodfellows raised more than $238,000.
Expenses this year for the group were more than $126,000 for food and nearly $55,700 for toys, organizers said.
“This is not including the food and toy donations that are collected throughout our campaign,” a Goodfellows news release said.
Any extra food was distributed to local food banks.
Haskell said the support from the people of Chatham-Kent is forever humbling.
“It’s awesome. We live in the best community for giving back,” he said. “We had lots of people doing fundraisers for us. The money that came in is overwhelming. It helps us buy the toys and the food we put in the hampers.”
The Goodfellows are never really in an off season. Haskell said there is one more end-of-campaign meeting in early February, but the team purchases toys year round in anticipation of the need for next year.
“You just keep buying up toys that are on sale,” he said.
But the work begins in earnest next fall.
“We’ll meet again in September. That’s when you get back into it,” Haskell said.
