Moncton toy drives fear some kids won't get gifts this Christmas

It doesn't matter that the room is cold.

Amanda Pooley will take her sweater off anyway, warm from moving around and putting toys on shelves, taking them off. Armed with an extra-large coffee, she spends hours every day in the small storage room at the back of Jim's Bike Shop in Moncton, packing presents for families in need, sometimes working all the way into Christmas Eve.

She expects to be there again on Dec.24 this year. Demand is high, sponsorship rates are down by half, and for the first time ever, Pooley and her volunteers at What Kids Need Moncton have had to close applications and put families on a waiting list.

When CBC News visited Pooley on Thursday, there were 60 names on that list, up from 40 just a couple of days before. There are 1,500 kids on the regular list, up from 1,205 last year

"We have not had a year like this before," Pooley said, chalking it up to the rising cost-of-living.

She never meant to start a charity.

Thirteen years ago, she had a few extra toys lying around and posted on Kijiji, asking if any mothers in the area needed presents for their children.

She helped 27 kids that year, and as more Christmas seasons have come and gone, she's watched the people she's helped become volunteers or donors themselves.

It takes a village, Pooley said.

A local woman in her 90s has a crew of knitters, and they spend all year making hats and mittens for the kids.

WATCH | Step into Snowflake Station and Toyland, whose volunteers are trying to save Christmas:

This is what the Christmas spirit looks like

9 months ago

Duration 2:49

Donations are down, but people are in more need of help than ever. These volunteers are trying to make sure every kid who needs a present gets one this Christmas but without help from the community, their efforts might be futile.

Local businesses send gifts and money, cover the cost of light and heat in the storage room. Even the staff at Jim's Bike Shop have built extra shelves in their building for presents (and they dress up in elf hats to bring those presents out to the families).

But all of that might not be enough this year.

"I drive my volunteers crazy because every year when we start, it's very overwhelming, and I say OK, it'll get done," Pooley said. "But again, we've never had a waitlist before, so even I am nervous this year."

Over at Moncton Headstart on Mountain Road, the organizers of Toyland are in the same boat.

Executive director Caroline Donelle said donations across the board are down by almost half since COVID-19.

After losing a major sponsor this year, the charity group may have to tell parents who've scheduled appointments to pick out presents for their kids not to come.

"I know it looks like a lot," Donelle said, standing in a room full of toys. "But it's not."

Last year, Toyland provided presents for just under 1,500 kids, and Donelle expects to exceed that number this year. When she spoke with CBC News last week, the organization was closing in on 700 appointments.

"Remember that those 700 people are parents," she said. "There are multiple children with each parent."

The two charities check each other's lists to make sure they're not doubling up on any families, always trying to make donations go as far as possible so that no kids are left without.

To make things easier, What Kids Need Moncton actually has an Amazon wish list of items that are delivered right to Jim's Bike Shop, so people can buy gifts from the comfort of their own homes.

Volunteers also use monetary donations at Headstart to go out and buy gifts, if people don't have time to shop for presents and drop them off themselves.

But Donelle understands why not everyone can donate this year.

"There's a lot of food insecurity in the city," she said. "Budgets are tighter, particularly for low-income families. We all know your dollar doesn't go very far at the grocery store anymore."

Unless Headstart, which does require to see proof of income and a Medicare card for each child receiving a gift,runs out of toys, it will offer appointments to parents until Dec. 19. What Kids Need Moncton will take donations right up until Christmas Eve.