Community comes together and stuffs four buses full of toys for Santas Anonymous

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo would like to thank all the residents, local businesses, organizations and schools who participated in the fourth annual Stuff-A-Bus toy drive and helped fill four municipal buses with donations for Santas Anonymous.

“The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Wood Buffalo,” said Annette LeBrun, Stuff-A-Bus Coordinator. “Thanks to the generosity of community members, we more than doubled the amount of donations from last year making this our biggest year yet! Together, we have helped Santas Anonymous provide hundreds of gifts to families and children across the region.”

“Wow! Thank you, Wood Buffalo,” said Jennifer Pope, Santas Anonymous, Co-Chair. “Every child should have the opportunity to experience the joy of the holiday season and thanks to the hard work of students, volunteers and community partners there will be countless smiles Christmas morning. Now we need to wrap all these gifts and get them ready to be delivered to homes this Friday, December 20!”

Santas Anonymous is a student-led initiative at Father Patrick Mercredi Community High School and has been in operation since 1984. The RMWB Transit Services team, along with Country 93.3 and 97.9 Rock partnered with Santas Anonymous to help collect donations and ensure families in need in our region have the opportunity to celebrate the holiday season.

On Friday, Dec. 13, municipal buses visited participating local businesses, organizations and schools to collect their donations and drop them off at Father Patrick Mercredi Community High School. Special guests on the bus included students from the Santas Anonymous initiative, Country 93.3 and 97.9 Rock as well as Santa and Mrs. Claus, who took time out of their very busy schedules to thank all participating businesses, organizations and schools for their kind donations.

This year, the Stuff-A-Bus toy drive began Nov. 13., and saw 75 organizations participate, which is an increase of 48 organizations from last year’s campaign.