34th Annual Food and Toy Drive - Wrap Up
With another DRPS Food and Toy Drive behind us, we are proud to say that our team (Sworn, Civilian, Auxiliary, volunteers and families of members) did it AGAIN. The continued overwhelming support from our communities, citizens and corporate sponsors, once again helped us achieve and reach the goals we set. Throughout the drive, we heard many comments from members of the public that expressed gratitude for our service and the work being done by the Food and Toy Drive team. DRPS would like to acknowledge the efforts of Cst. Darryl Rice, who, for the last six years has selflessly sacrificed time with his family and volunteered to ensure the success of the Food and Toy Drive. His efforts have once again made a difference to thousands of families across Durham Region.
Every agency that requested our help, received our assistance, and every individual request we received (including DRPS members) was looked after by the agencies we assist.
In the final days, several agencies began to advise us, that they were now good, and have filled all their Christmas hampers, and no longer needed toys.
This year Amazon came on as new corporate support and donor, and we are grateful to have so many that work with us to help others, and look forward to watching how they continue to respond yearly along with these major donors such as: OPG, Phoenix, Scotiabank, Gerdau Steel, Black&McDonald, MSIFN, OMS, PetSmart and McDonalds.
We did 16 Cram-A-Cruiser events at these locations:
Costco - Oshawa South
Bargain Shop - Oshawa
Sobeys - Oshawa
Freshco - Bowmanville
Liz's No Frills - Whitby
Canadian Tire - Whitby N and S
Canadian Tire - Ajax
Canadian Tire - Oshawa N
Canadian Tire - Bowmanville
Loblaws - Pickering
Superstore - Ajax
Superstore - Whitby
Superstore - Oshawa N and S
Loblaws - Bowmanville.
More than 250 pickups/donations from individual companies and/or locations which also resulted in more than 300 deliveries being made as a result of those various pickups.
A total of 41 box donation locations, including our various Police and Firehalls.
DRPS was able to help and/or support more than 50 charitable organizations (including foodbanks) and 17 Retirement and Seniors homes and Lakeridge Health.
Thank you to everyone in the community who attended these events and donated over the holiday season to help others, we look forward to seeing what the 35th Food and Toy Drive will bring to Durham Region residents.
