CALGARY -- Santa Claus and his elves made a pre-Christmas appearance in Calgary Tuesday to visit hundreds of homes and deliver gifts to families facing challenges.
Volunteers with the Magic of Christmas filled Calgary Transit buses with thousands of toys and gifts for the hundreds of families selected to participate in the program.
All the gifts were donated to the Magic of Christmas initiative and everyone working to sort and distribute them is a volunteer.
"It takes about 1,400 volunteers throughout the Christmas season, and just to get today accomplished. We're going to mobilize about 800 elves and of course Santa," said Clayton Busher, president of Magic of Christmas.
"Everybody is a volunteer — 100 per cent, top to bottom, we’re a volunteer-run organization."
Calgary Transit donated 22 city buses and 44 of its drivers volunteered their time to make the deliveries with Santa.
Garry Goddard normally drives the Ctrains now, but recertifies to drive city buses every year in October so he can volunteer for the Magic of Christmas
"I just find it's great to touch people's lives and seeing the faces on the people we go to help," he said. "You can’t replace it. It’s worth everything to me."
The Magic of Christmas began operation in 1983 this year is serving more than 700 families.
Most families selected face financial or emotional challenges, while some are new to Canada.
At around 9 a.m. Tuesday, Santa came to Lilian Melling’s door. The mother of two is from Cameroon. This is the first Christmas her children Zoe-Jasmine, 6, Kenzo, 4, and her mother Grace will spend together in Canada.
"Oh my god. What a morning. We just heard the bells ring and the kids were like, it’s Santa coming to the house! It’s Santa!" Melling said.
"I'm like, how do you know it’s Santa? And then I heard the bells, and I'm like, Oh, they know. They knew he was here. We ran downstairs just for this. So excited. So happy, so blessed."
Magic of Christmas, with the help of Santa, delivered gifts to Lilian Melling and her family Tuesday morning.
On the weekend, Magic of Christmas issued an emergency appeal for donations of toys for kids ages nine through 12, and teens. Following that call, the group received a flood of donations, but Busher said this year was a tough one.
"We had a 25 per cent increase in referral requests this year, over any of our other years, but a 25 per cent increase in donation volume — that we did not see," he said.
"That's the one unfortunate thing. As demand goes up. supply tends to go down in this business."
Nevertheless, with the help of Calgarians, Busher said the charity has filled enough of Santa’s sacks to deliver gifts this year to everyone on its list.
"I would love to thank Calgarians for their generosity to help us reach our goals, as well as all of the time and effort that the volunteers put in here. Just none of it could happen without all of that coming together," he said.
