Dropboxes and direct donations helped this year's Santa Anonymous from the Optimist Club. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Successful Santa Anonymous

Despite greater need, Optimist Club still runs successful Santa Anonymous Campaign

Dec 30, 2022 | 9:00 AM

For those less fortunate and in need of a hand at Christmastime, the Santa Anonymous Campaign in Prince Albert is a huge help in getting presents under the tree. This year, there were more families than usual in need of their help.

Despite the greater need and fewer direct toy donations from their drop-boxes, the campaign, put on by the Prince Albert Optimist Club, had another successful season to put a bow on 2022.

“It was fairly successful,” said Dave Markling, chair of the Santa Anonymous campaign. “Toy donations in the boxes were down quite a bit this year, but that’s understandable with the times… It was close to 1500 kids who were served this year and got gifts from the hampers.”

Santa Anonymous helps provide toys for the Salvation Army, which noticed an increase in the demand for the number of Christmas hampers this year. Part of that was due to the increase in the age of the kids they were serving up to age 16. The Salvation Army noted there were as many as 600 families seeking hampers.

“It was inflated a couple of hundred because they raised the age,” said Markling.

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The good news was local organizations and individuals stepped up to help meet the increased demand. Among them were the Prince Albert Raiders, who gathered toy donations at a pre-Christmas home game. The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation also came through with a donation of $25,000 to buy additional toys.

“It’s always nice to see the support from the community for everything,” Markling said. “The Raiders have always come through for us, every year. They’ve been spectacular with Santa Anonymous, they support us wholeheartedly, always give us something to give away and try to encourage people to bring gifts to the game.”

The campaign is always a highlight of the year for the Optimist Club, and has been for decades, going back to the 1960s.

“No matter what it is, if it’s for the kids it’s the most important thing for me,” said Markling. “Kids drive everything for me. The Santa Anonymous project, the first project we started was back in 1961 so it’s been going for 61 years now and it’s been a very successful thing to help local youth that need that extra little help come the Christmas season. Not all of them are able to, unfortunately, have something under that tree.

Markling added they were extremely grateful for the support of 900 CKBI, who helped get the word out and rally support.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP