Ponoka Secondary Campus will be wrapping up their 39th year of doing Santa’s Anonymous. A teacher at the school named Karen David has been overseeing the program since 2007 but has been helping out for much longer.  With many school fundraisers cancelled, she was happy that Santa’s Anonymous was able to still go on with a few changes.

“I had to order more food because we didn't have our Stuff a Bus campaign.  Over the last few years we've done Food Bingo and if your class brings all the items on your bingo card, then your class can win prizes and stuff. We weren't able to do that this year because we have no kids in school right now,” said David.

Community boxes were placed around local businesses in Ponoka in order to collect food and toys but David says most people donated toys to those boxes this year.

Despite the pandemic and having a few less student helping hands, David says the program was able to operate relatively seamlessly this year.

“It’s been a little bit more challenging but we do have like a more staff helping out. There are a few students we can work with in small cohorts. That should help, but we're ready for it. We've been doing it for so long that we're quite as streamlined machine,” explained David.

David was expecting a high amount of need in the community but was surprised by few applications this year.

“I've kind of booked for a little bit of extra need based on my numbers from last year, but we haven't hit any of those numbers yet at all. We still have another full week, so this next week probably will be busy in terms of people calling in,” said David.

Heading forward, David will be looking for families in need to help out. If you know of a family or are a family in need in the Ponoka area you can reach out Santa’s Hotline at (403) 963-9568 to receive a bit of extra help this holiday season.

Santa’s Anonymous will be accepting applications until December 18th. Packages are expected to be delivered on December 21st.

Photo courtesy of Karen David.