The Annual Christmas Toy Drive, under the direction of Msgr. Hugh MacPherson Council # 14596 (KoC) for the second year in a row, has been an overwhelming success once again. Over the course of 33 days, 20 members of the council, (representing 42% of our council) along with 6 volunteers, contributed more than 1158 hours of time, energy and effort to this amazing, most worthwhile project! Having begun on November 17th and concluding on December 23rd, funds were raised by a variety of means, such as a raffle draw, straw game and gift wrapping. Our local EHS members, along with some of our council members, spent several hours outside the local Wal-Mart, collecting toys and monetary donations from customers for the Toy Drive. The majority of funds received comes via the donations made to Christmas Daddies funds from 2010. We had many of our local businesses and schools sponsor needy families, which the Toy Drive assists with.

     The success of this event is due to the tremendous support of the general public, businesses, sponsors and donors who give most generously at this time of the year, whether it is gift items, toys, clothing or monetary donations. We cannot do it without them! Thank You all!! Please find attached some photos of this years' project. This year, as last, the local radio station X-FM 98.9/ CJFX  gave tremendous radio airtime for our project, doing live broadcasts from our Antigonish Shopping Mall location.

        A new addition this year, the radio station held a monthly contest, in partnership with the 'Teach Me' educational supplies store and Dairy Queen, where children would call in to guess what the 'elves were building', based on the clues they gave on-air. If the child guessed the correct answer, a toy was donated by 'Teach Me' to the Toy Drive, (in that child's name) and the child would receive a free meal deal from Dairy Queen. This was a very popular way of getting the local broadcast listening audience to get acquainted with the Toy Drive and to donate, so that needy children in our areas would receive gifts they may otherwise not have gotten, on Christmas morning. That is a terrific feeling!!

Included are some pictures taken at the Toy Drive location, showing some of our members wrapping gifts, a volunteer at the Straw Game, members and volunteers filling the bags for our clients, bags awaiting pick-up, a member standing by the gift table hosted by X-FM 98.9, Teach Me and Dairy Queen partnership project, and a young child with her grandmother, cuddling the teddy bear she received from us as a give-away.