Yesterday (Novemer 15), the Cochrane Activettes launched the Share Your Christmas campaign, a chance for people in Cochrane and area to make Christmas brighter for others that may be struggling this time of the year.

Connie Craig, the Secretary pf the Activettes club and Chair of the Share Your Christmas campaign says the program's been around since the early 80's and started when the club was asked to help a single mom and her three year old daughter.

"It just sort of took off from there," she says.  "Fast forward to 2016 and we helped over 700 people last year with food and toys.".

The Share Your Christmas campaign is all about helping people in need.  "We get them food and toys for their kids if they're struggling and don't have a lot of money at Christmas time."

The way the campaign works, according to Craig, is starting this week, people can call the Activettes if they require a hamper for Christmas. 

"You call the number, 403 660-4135, we'll take some information from you, like how many are in the family, the ages of the kids, their gender and what they'd like for toys.  On the reverse side, anybody who wants to sponsor a family can call the same number and talk to the ladies and they'll find a family for you and let you know what the family wants as far as clothing sizes for the kids, and toys."  

Craig says the whole Cochrane community chips in to make the campaign a success.

"The Cochrane and Area Events Society hosts 'Stuff A Bus' for us.  That will be on Sunday, December 10th.  We have a bus parked in the Canadian Tire parking lot.  Anybody can come if they want to donate a toy or if they want to donate food it will get put on the bus."

We also have about 35 or 40 Christmas wrapped boxes that will be going around to different businesses in town like the banks and drug stores and several other businesses.  If you're a customer of any of those businesses you can certainly put in a toy or food.

We gather everything up on December 8th and we start packing our food hampers and packing our toy hampers.  Then on December 16th, everybody that has phoned us and needs a hamper, we give them a pickup time to come and pick up their food and toys."

The Activettes are not a particularly large club.  Craig says for that reason, they rely on help from the community to make Share Your Christmas a success.

"We have volunteers that come and help sort out all the toys into different age and gender groups.  All the toys go into a Santa sack.  All the sacks are made by one lady in Cochrane.  She sews Santa sacks and quilts for us all year long.   All the schools in Cochrane have their own programs.  They'll buy toys for us or bedtime bags which consist of pyjamas and a book or a stuffy.  Cochrane Toyotoa has a 'Stuff A Truck' promotion to get toys and food.  Other places are having Christmas markets where they collect food for the hampers.  We get a ton of community support."

According to Craig, the need continues to grow each year.  "We helped just over 700 individuals last year and that translated into 207 families.  In 2015 we helped 191 families and 144 in 2014.  This year we're anticipating an increased again to about 225 families that will need help at Christmas."

Again, the number to call if you require a hamper or if you'd like to adopt a family to provide with a hamper is 403 660-4135.