With donation numbers hurting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gifts are being sought for a toy drive at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) grounds to be held this month.
Most years the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau (LMCB) ships over 145,000 items and around $70,000-worth of supermarket gift cards to families across Metro Vancouver. Last year though most of the events the bureau collects donations at were cancelled causing donations to drop by about 25,000. The bureau was still able to distribute a five-ton truck full of three to 4,000 toys across Vancouver last year but the need is still great for the rest of the Lower Mainland.
Chris Bayliss, director of the LMCB says 30 per cent of the donations are distributed around Vancouver while the rest go to cities like Surrey.
"Last year we shipped [Surrey] over 12,000 toys, which sounds like a lot -- it kind of was -- but some years we ship them more," Bayliss said.
As such the LMCB is once again hosting a two-day drive-thru event at the PNE grounds on Nov. 19 between 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Nov. 20 between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. To enter the drive-through you’ll need to enter at Gate 6 on Renfrew Street near the Pacific Coliseum.
Anyone wanting to make a monetary donation via cash or tap or donate a new, unwrapped gift is encouraged to visit the event.
