City Hall will be getting a Christmas makeover for the Christmas with Dignity Celebration Dec. 10.
“There’ll be activities upstairs as well as in the library,” said Family and Community Services Coordinator Danielle Fermin.
Residents are invited to come down between 9 a.m. and noon to support Christmas with Dignity. Entrance to the celebration is free.
Activities at the celebration include a silent auction, café, live music, Santa’s workshop and a children’s Christmas store.
“The children’s store is probably our biggest activity,” said Fermin.
With the help of some Christmas elf volunteers, children aged 4 and up will have the opportunity to shop for Christmas gifts for their family at the Christmas store set up in council chambers.
“For some of these kiddos it’s their first time purchasing gifts for their families,” she said.
All the items in the store have been donated and are priced at five dollars in the store.
Santa’s workshop has been moved to the library this year to make more space in the city hall lobby for the event.
New this year is a Christmas with Dignity Café.
The Celebration is the main fundraiser for the Christmas with Dignity campaign that runs from Nov. 17 to Jan. 6 this year.
In addition to the Celebration day, there are bins set up through Chestermere collecting donations for the children’s store.
There will be a toy and non-perishable food drive on Dec. 17 in Partnership with Lifepath for the Christmas hampers.
There are also donation collections at business around the city.
Fermin said Christmas with Dignity receives a lot of support from the community.
“We do get a lot of residents coming in to the office each year doing a cash or cheque or credit card donation,” she said, “That is actually a huge majority of how we get dollars into this fund each year.”
In addition to the financial donations needed to run the support program, over 100 volunteers are needed to help with the Celebration.
The Christmas with Dignity program has been running in Chestermere since 2007.
“The main focus of Christmas with dignity was to support families during this time of the year to meet their basic needs as well as provide their children with presents for the Christmas holiday,” she said.
The program has evolved over the years to have more of a focus on bridge funding for the entire year for residents of Chestermere and southeast Rocky View County.
“It’s expanded to beyond Christmas now,” said Fermin, “and its open to anyone.”
The program is inclusive of everyone in the program area whether they celebrate Christmas or not.
One of the ways that these goals are achieved are through the Christmas hampers program done in partnership with the food bank.
The deadline for registration in the hamper program is Dec. 9.
If a member of the community misses the deadline for the hampers there are still other programs and resources available to help families through the Community Resource Centre and Christmas with Dignity.
After completing their own assessment of an applicant, Christmas with Dignity helps people with a variety of financial difficulties.
“Whether it be with their utilities being disconnected or if they’re going to be at risk of eviction or they need damage deposit,” said Fermin.
For more information, to donate or volunteer with the celebration contact Fermin at Family and Community Services at (403) 207-8152.
To register with the program, contact either Fermin or the Community Resource Centre at (403) 207-7079.
