ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Children don’t understand when Santa is on a budget, says Krista Koerner.
Koerner is the executive director of the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SPANL), an organization that helped her in 2005 and 2006 as a single mother of a young daughter.
For nearly 35 years, SPANL has supported single parents in need in various ways, including through its Christmas program, where businesses and individuals help out by sponsoring a family or donating gifts, gift cards or money.
This year, when the organization put out the call for single parents to register, the 250 spots it can accommodate were filled within two hours. An additional 150 families were put on a waitlist, Koerner said.
While she was shocked by the increase in need, it wasn’t altogether unexpected.
“I use our foodbank numbers as a guide, and our food bank numbers have been going up and up and up and up every month for the last year. It’s more and more and more and more, which shows me the dire need in the community,” she said.
Fewer sponsors
On top of the higher demand for their Christmas program, fewer people have offered to sponsor this year, Koerner said.
“Usually by this time of the year, I’ve at least got … the 250 sponsored,” she said, while noting there are still 60 of the 250 families who have not been matched with sponsors.
“Now I worry about piecing together all the other donations. The $40 here, the $20 there, the grocery cards (to) make hampers for the other 150.”
CBCL is an engineering consulting business with an office in St. John’s. They’ve been sponsoring families for at least 15 years, employee Brenda Harding said.
“We can’t help everybody, but we do our best to help at least one family.” – Brenda Harding
“We call our project Operation Christmas Cheer. It’s organized by a team five ladies here in the office, but it’s supported by everybody. Everybody gets involved,” she said.
Why they participate each year is simple, Harding said. It’s because it’s needed.
“I wish it wasn’t needed,” Harding said. “And the girls all agree that we know there’s a need and we just can’t let some little child out there wake up Christmas morning and there not be anything. We can’t help everybody, but we do our best to help at least one family.”
While their focus has always been on supporting families in need and SPANL, there is joy on the faces in the office on delivery day, she said.
And the letters, cards and notes they’ve received in previous years are heartwarming.
“The notes (SPANL) has sent us just to say the family was so touched or it made this little …….