The Chatham Goodfellows are kicking off their 70th annual "No Child Without a Christmas" campaign by opening up registration for their Christmas hampers.
For existing clients, who have already signed up for the program in the past, registration is now open and it will stay open until November 29.
Tim Haskell with the Chatham-Kent Goodfellows told CK Mornings with Chris, Allanah, & Matt on 94.3 CKSY that those clients can sign up at www.chathamgoodfellows.ca.
"If you have been in our system already, just go online... you can go to the 'register' button, hit 'register' and it'll have all of the information on there that you can input -- it's that easy," said Haskell. "If you have been in our system before, your name stays in there so we can just go in and access your information."
First-time applicants for the Christmas hampers will have to wait a couple of extra days, though.
The registration for those clients will start on Monday, November 4, 2024 with the phone lines open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays at 519 354 1146.
"If you want to call us, give us a call -- we'll get you in there... the only thing we ask is that you don't try to add yourself to another agency," said Haskell. "That way, we can help as many people as possible, we don't want two agencies to give to one person."
Haskell said the call-takers will ask for some basic information including how many people are in your family and how many children there are.
"We're not going to grill you," added Haskell.
After the phone lines open up, the next thing on the agenda for the Goodfellows is their door-to-door streetlight campaign, which will be looking for monetary donations and donations of toys and non-perishable food on December 2.
They will also be collecting donations at the Real Canadian Superstore on December 6 and 7 for Santa's Day Off before they start toy packing from December 9 to 12. The Street Sales fundraiser is on December 13 and 14.
The Goodfellows are set to deliver the toys on December 17 and they will be packing and delivering the food hampers on December 18.
Volunteers are still needed for several of those events and anyone interested in helping out can find more information by clicking here.