Every kid who celebrates Christmas deserves to wake up to a present on Christmas Day.
Local radio station, the Zone at 91.3, wants to make this a reality by putting on an annual toy drive in partnership with the Christmas Giving Network.
The Christmas Giving network is a group of agencies that work in collaboration to create and distribute gift hampers to underprivileged families during Christmastime.
On December 9th, the Zone will set up shop in the Mayfair Shopping Centre’s southeast corner parking lot to collect the toy donations for their 13th consecutive year.
This year’s toy drive will be done in a drive-thru fashion to allow vehicles loaded up with gifts to drop off their loads quickly and easily.
Toys aren’t the only thing that can be donated though. Gift card donations are being taken and the radio station will even have a debit machine so electronic donations can be made for those who do not have a chance to go gift shopping, or for those who just don’t know what to get.
“Cash donations are always appreciated because the Christmas Giving Network really knows where the holes are to fill,” said Susan Knight, the Zone’s Promotions Director. “When we put money in their hands they really know how to stretch that out.”
Knight said that the toy drive always ends up getting plenty of toy donations for young kids, but teenagers often get overlooked.
“If you want to target the teens, what really works is gift cards,” Knight told Victoria Buzz. “What kid doesn’t like getting a loaded Starbucks gift card in their stocking?”
The Zone will be broadcasting their morning show with Dylan and Jason on-site. They will be there along with other on air and off air staff and volunteers to take the donations.
Knight said that the Layed Out car club will be coming by with all their modified classic cars loaded to the brim with gift donations as they have in past years. Also that the Claremont Secondary School is doing a gift card drive ahead of time to collect gifts for teenagers in need.
One Touch House and the Castaway Wanderers rugby club will also be coming through with huge donations as they have done in years past.
The Camosun Chargers will be helping out by being on hand to assist the radio station collect the gifts that are dropped off.
Prior to the day of the big drive-thru event, people can drop off toy donations with the following select Peninsula Co-op locations:
- 6739 West Saanich Road (Brentwood)
- 321 Wale Road (Colwood)
- 4397 West Shore Parkway (Langford)
- 2320 Millstream Road (Millstream)
- 6429 Pat Bay Highway (Saanich)
- 10350 McDonald Park Road (Sidney)
To donate a gift card or cash prior to the event, donations can be mailed to the Zone at 3rd floor, 2750 Quadra Street, Victoria, BC V8T 4E8.
The Zone’s toy drive-thru
- Where: Mayfair Shopping Centre parking lot at the corner of Blanshard and Finlayson
- When: 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Friday December 9th
