CIFM's Kayla Derkach and Nicole Welsh collecting donations from the Sahali Mall toy house. (Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

TOY HOUSE CAMPAIGN

B-100 and CIFM crews deliver Toy House donations to Christmas Amalgamated

Dec 20, 2021 | 4:35 PM

KAMLOOPS — Broadcast Centre crews hit the streets of Kamloops today (Dec. 20) to collect hundreds of donated toys for Christmas Amalgamated.

It was a busy morning to wrap up the annual Toy House campaign, and CFJC teams managed to catch up with B-100 Kamloops and 98.3 CIFM‘s Kayla Derkach.

“Just to see the end result, you kind of tear up a little because it’s such a big thing to be a part of,” Derkach says, “There’s a lot of families in need, especially this year after everything we’ve all been through in our community. So just to see it all come together, it’s such a heartwarming feeling.”

Toy houses and collection bins were set up at eight locations – inside malls, grocery stores, and car dealerships – and this year the city didn’t disappoint.

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Kayla collecting toy house donations from the Columbia Square Save-On Foods location. (Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today)

“There’s been so many awesome donations,” B-100‘’s Jeremy McParland says, “People are thinking about kids, babies, teenagers, everyone is going to get that smile on their face on Christmas morning. We’re really excited. We’ve been travelling around today picking up all the toys, it was an awesome haul, so way to go again Kamloops.”

Once the Broadcast Centre elves collected all the toys, they made their way over to Christmas Amalgamated to drop off the haul. The carloads were met with plenty of enthusiasm by Christmas Amalgamated volunteers, and coordinator Sally Whitson says the donations will bring a lot of joy.

“Boy I’ll tell you, there are some beautiful toys in there. And I mean it’s just happening all over. People who are signing up to prepare four hampers are bringing in ten,” she explains, “I mean the generosity this year is just incredible.”

The Toy House collection comes during Christmas Amalgamated’s final push before Christmas. Whitson says it’s been a hard year for plenty of families, and the toys and food donations are appreciated all the more.

“It has been rough. So many people who have never been in this position before are finding themselves almost in shock because ‘what do I do? I can’t provide Christmas for my own family.’ So this is…this is what we’re about,” she says.

Last-minute donations can still be dropped off this week at the Brock Shopping Centre. Whitson says they’ll be open every day until 4:30 p.m. right up until the afternoon of Christmas Eve.