Santa Run Huge Success

Well thanks to everyone that participated, this years Santa Run was the biggest and best ever. What a incredible outpouring of community support as Sooke Firefighters collected an enourmous amount of food for the Sooke Christmas Bureau and Food Bank. It took the combined capacity of both Shane and Chris' trailers as well as an additional half pick up load to get all the groceries and toys to the Community Hall. An additional $757.00 in cash and cheques was also turned in. It was quite a sight to see all of the food piled up in the basement of the Community Hall. Turns out the bags we had inserted into the Sooke Mirror certainly helped to put people into the giving spirit. A total of 440 of the special marked grocery bags were returned with food. This does not include those turned into the East Sooke FD and another (approx 100) bags that Otter Point collected on their run. Due to this success we may have to revamp next year to accomodate the growth. Two choices come to mind, either we add a fourth truck and route or we will have to start earlier, perhaps 4:00 or 4:30. There is not the space here to thank everyone involved but I must mention Western Foods who paid for the bags ( $650.00)and the Sooke and Otter Point Firefighters Association for splitting the $650.00 printing cost and the District of Sooke for the cost of inserting the bags in the Mirror ($250.00) {Yes, it is expensive to be charitable} Hopefully more sponsors will come on board next year. East Sooke FD is already interested in having their route placed on the bag too! Again, I must thank everyone from the decorators of the trucks, to the elves that helped collect the food, to those that came out to deliver the food and finally those that came back on Sunday to dismantle 204. A special thank you to Santa 1, 2 and 3 for putting up with the lovely weather. Your community spirit was noticed by many. An outstanding job.