In our view: Many hands made Operation: Keep the Change a festive success

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Christmas requires quite an investment.

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There are long lists of gifts to choose, various foods to prepare, decorations to purchase and journeys to be made. It takes a lot of money and a lot of effort.

But as with every other task, if you share the load, the load becomes much lighter.

That’s what this community has just demonstrated with another successful Operation: Keep the Change in support of needy families at Christmas.

Thousands of people gave a little, and a few gave a lot, but as a team, we certainly managed to lightened the load of preparing Christmas for those who need some help at this time of year.

It began about a month ago with 150 coin jugs being distributed to organizations, schools and businesses. All the organizers asked for was spare change.

Then the holders of all those jugs, and anyone else who wanted to join in, were asked to come to the Regent Mall last weekend to dump their jugs of change into a giant container.

The total isn’t known yet, because many selfless people are now in the process of sorting, counting and rolling all that money, but we expect it will at least meet last year’s total of about $25,000.

Who donated to Operation: Keep the Change? Children came with their piggy banks.

One woman brought all her money earmarked for a planned trip to the Holy Land.

Former food bank users came with their cash.

Service clubs brought large cheques. Businesses brought change collected from their customers and staff, and schools brought their jugs full of coins collected in the classroom. It truly was a community effort.

What we might forget is that there are thousands of people behind this effort, particularly with groups that held fundraisers for this cause. People showed up at the bingos, bought food from the canteens and participated in all the other events where service clubs raise funds. It is an impressive fundraising network with many hands when you stop to think about it.

So where is all this money going? To four fine local agencies — the Salvation Army, the Fredericton Community Kitchen and the Oromocto and Fredericton food banks.

These groups will ensure all the money is used to prepare a Christmas celebration for hundreds of needy families in our community. That will include gifts, toys and all the ingredients necessary for a festive feast.

They will make sure no one goes without and that everyone has something to celebrate this year.

Yes, Christmas requires quite an investment.

But unlike stock markets and mutual funds, an investment in our community and its people always pays dividends and it does so immediately.

From the Daily Gleaner and the Astral Media Radio stations and the sponsors — TD Canada Trust, Wacky Wheatleys, Cadillac-Fairview Regent Mall, Massive Graphics and Valley Graphics — we want you to know your investment is appreciated and worthwhile, and we thank you.