THUNDER BAY – Children in five northern fly-in communities are about to get a pre-Christmas visit from Santa Claus.
A Royal Canadian Air Force Hercules 130 aircraft, laden with pallets full of toys, landed on Monday morning at the Thunder Bay airport, the first leg of a journey that will see the gifts sorted and delivered later this week to Marten Falls, Kasabonika, Deer Lake, Poplar Hill and Fort Severn.
“Today, we’re going to take the toys off in this cold, cold weather, and we’re going to get them to the Gardewine transport and move them over to their facility this afternoon. Tomorrow we’ll regroup again and get them all triaged and sorted for our five recipient communities this year,” said Karen Matson, who handles communications and media relations with North Star Air, one of the partner agencies in the Toys for the North campaign.
“Every year, we all know how tough it is out there, especially at Christmas time. We want to ensure the youth in the First Nations communities receive some wonderful gifts from our beautiful donors.”
Cpl. Darryl Waruk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the agency behind the program, said the Toys for the North campaign keeps getting better and better every year.
“We’re always enthusiastic about it because of the generosity that the toy companies and other corporate sponsors are in helping out with this event,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that goes on behind it, with the RCMP in Cornwall, Ont. and with Karen here at Noth Star Air to make this all come to fruition.
“Every year, this just keeps on getting better, and it’s a good way of spreading goodwill in the community.”
Waruk said too many children living in First Nations communities don’t have the same access to toy stores that those living in larger centres might. A program like Toys for the North helps level the playing field.
“We take that for granted. These companies, through their generosities, they’re able to pool together a lot of toys, where it’s difficult for anybody to just go down the street and get toys for the kids,” Waruk said. “It’s really helpful, and it’s a wonderful thing.”
The toys are scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday and Thursday, a few days later than originally planned, due to issues getting them to Thunder Bay.