OPP, Essex Fire & Rescue pick up Santa’s Cause for Kids donations

by Sylene Argent  

Last Friday, local OPP personnel and members of Essex Fire & Rescue joined forces to collect donated new, unwrapped toys that were submitted to the annual Santa’s Cause for Kids program.

  Several businesses, located throughout the municipality, hosted a Santa’s Cause for Kids drop off depot leading up to the holiday season, where residents and clients could submit new, unwrapped gifts for the program. Making a donation helps ensure youths of families facing economically stressful times enjoy a wonderful holiday and an exciting Christmas morning.

  On Friday, members of the local OPP detachment and Essex Fire & Recue picked up the donations collected in Essex Centre, which included at Essex Home Hardware, Dollar Tree, Red Apple, Canadian Tire, TSC, the Essex Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion (Branch 201), Countryside Dodge, and Ken Knapp Ford.

Santa’s temporary helpers were especially impressed with the huge donation made at Ken Knapp Ford, where the box of a pickup was overflowing with donated items, to which generous staff members and clients contributed.  

  The Santa’s Cause for Kids program has been in operation for over a decade. It started when OPP Contestable Joe Meloche, and fellow OPP officers and local Fire fighters, saw a need within the community.

  Toys donated through the program will be delivered to the Essex Salvation Army, the Essex Area Food Bank, the St. Vincent de Paul chapters in Harrow and McGregor, and the Zeta Kappa Sorority for its Santa’s Sack program.

  Jason Pillon, Assistant Deputy Fire Chief with Essex Fire & Rescue, on behalf of the program, thanked the businesses for participating and community members for their generosity. “We can’t thank everyone enough,” he said.

Those wishing to support this cause can still do so. Donations can be submitted to Essex Fire Station #1. Those items will be used to support the program next year.