Christmas Baskets program set to kickoff in new home

11/04/2004

Office open for registrations Monday

BY SUSAN GAMBLE
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

Santa's little helpers have been busy this week, moving the Christmas Baskets program to a new location on Mohawk Street.

The program, kicking off its 50th year of operation, is getting the offices set up and phone connections made in preparation for taking registrations for assistance, starting on Monday.

After four years at the former Union Gas building downtown, Christmas Baskets moved on because the corporation that owns the building decided to stop community use of the site.

“We’re lucky to have King and Benton helping us,” said Heather Vanner, executive director of the community Resource Center.

Busy Week

K&B has opened space at 148 Mohawk St. to the program. The building was recently used as the returning office for the federal election.

"Susan Csentneky, program manager, was busy trying to get things in shape at the new location this week.

“It’s been a hectic couple days,” she said. “Some people were panicked at us not being at Union Gas and they thought we weren’t having the program this year.”

But Csetneky and some of the volunteer faithful who spend hours each year setting up the toy area, are making the program’s new home as organized and comfortable as possible.

“We’re lucky,” said Vanner. “This is a warm dry location and it’s central for the people who need to use it.”

She said the program owes a debt of gratitude to Union Gas, which has hosted the program for so long.

“They’ve been really good to us and we’ve bee spoiled, but every year, the community helps us find a location.”

The program usually needs between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet of space for offices and warehouse space for the thousands of donations that pour in from the community. Last year, 2,873 families were helped by Christmas Baskets, receiving the makings of a holiday dinner and a toy for every child in the family.

“This year, I expect there will be even more in the program because we’ve seen an increase in the demand for the food bank this year,” Vanner said.