After three weeks of hard work the Sooke Fire Rescue Service Christmas Food Drive has come to an end. Thank you so much to everyone that participated in front of the malls, helping with the Santa Run or unpacking food at the community hall. (It is now very full – might have to write them a ticket for overcrowding) The Santa Run was a huge success in spite of the terrible weather, and having four different routes this year allowed us to finish at a much more decent hour. Thanks also to all the family members that assisted at the various events. (Also East Sooke FD and Otter Point FD for their food drives). Special mention to the Hudson women for sorting and rolling all the coins collected. (Over $3,600). Also a huge thank you to Pat Hudson and Sue Daniels Ferrie for creating four new Santa costumes for this year’s Santa Run. And a special thank you to my right hand man through all of this – Bob Hudson who ensured everyone was set up, ready to go and helped take down the stations each night. Also must mention Dave Bennett who took on all the different stations not covered over the past few weeks and for the 137 emails (+/-) he sent me during this time. Thanks to the Lions Club for donating the proceeds of their Breakfast with Santa and the District of Sooke staff and council for the proceeds from the Christmas party. All in all it was a huge combined effort and I think this may have turned out to be the biggest and best drive ever.
So, after all this, I am sure you are anxious to hear the totals, so here goes. It was estimated the food and toys collected was worth somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000 so I settled on $23,477.67. (equivalent of 1,000 filled grocery bags). The cash and cheques totalled $11,523.33 for a grand total of $35,000 (now you know how I settled on the food value). Oh yeah, there are two gift cards for Village Food Markets (value unknown) and three $2 bus passes as well.
So again, thank you to everyone. Should make a lot of very Merry Christmas Days for many people in our area.
Fire Chief Steve Sorensen