By Vanessa Ybarra

Hundreds of toys collected for Christmas Amalgamated

Dec 20, 2017 | 3:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s a drive committed to ensuring every child and teen in Kamloops receives a present this Christmas season.

This morning, CIFM and B100 radio personalities stepped away from the mic to collect toys from this year’s Christmas Amalgamated toy houses campaign.

Approximately $1 million in toys and gifts is donated by residents throughout the community every year.

The toy travellers were out in full force Wednesday morning, picking up donated toys for children in need this Christmas.

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“We have stops throughout the city so we’re at Save-On-Foods, Aberdeen Mall and North Hills Mall so we’re going to hit the whole city,” said CIFM Radio Personality Jeremy McParland.

The Christmas Amalgamated toy houses program has been running for more than thirty years.

Every year residents fill the houses with hundreds of donations.

“I tell ya we got everything,” said CIFM Radio Personality Stan Bailey. “Books, puzzles, just about everything you can think of we’ve collected and for all ages which is good.”

Approximetly 2,000 children receive toys from the Christmas Amalgamated program each year.

Coordinator Sally Whitson says she’s overwhelmed by the level of generosity in Kamloops.

“It’s not just somebody giving up one or two things, in a lot of cases they’ve gone out and shopped and bought a tremendous amount of stuff, things that are appropriate for all of the different ages instead of just one age group so this really helps us out.”

“The holidays are always tough,” said McParland. “There’s toys, parties, celebrations so anything we can do to help people that need it, it’s something we look forward to doing every year.”