By Alessia Proietti

$80,000 raised by Outreach Centre

Adopt-A-Family program leads to Christmas miracles

Jan 12, 2022 | 8:30 AM

It was like a scene from a movie: a single mother walking outside in the snow with her two children towards the women’s shelter they were staying at.

Looking down on the ground, she finds a postcard from the Outreach Centre and calls the number. The one thing she wants for Christmas is a home of her own, maybe with a Christmas tree and some presents for the children. That dream for that mother, came true.

This is just one happy ending for the 175 families helped through this year’s Adopt-A-Family program with the Outreach Centre.

“I call it this year’s Christmas miracle because she just found the card and I had put my name and my phone number at the bottom of it so if anybody had questions from the public they could call,” said Ian Wheeliker, Executive Director of The Outreach Centre.

“I got a call from her and we were able to make a little Christmas magic happen, so it was a very nice story.”

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The program focuses on providing assistance to single parent households during the Christmas season, with gift cards for groceries, children’s toys and access to ongoing therapies like mental health and grief therapy, children’s art therapy, domestic violence, and more. Donors chose a family size to sponsor, starting from a small family of a parent and one child for $525 up to an extra-large family of a parent and five children for $1,500.

All other forms of donations were accepted as well.

READ: New ways to donate to The Outreach Centre’s Adopt-A-Family program

The vast majority of families in 2021 were single parent homes of three children.

“For not all, but for many of the families, if it wasn’t for us there literally would not have been much under the tree or on the Christmas dinner table so they were so very appreciative,” he said.

The charity organization raised $80,000 this year, receiving donations from $25 to $10,000 at a time from residents and businesses across Red Deer.

While a slower start this season didn’t have the Centre reaching their initial goal of $100,000, they were still able to help 300 children and raise more funds than last year’s $60,000.

And as always, Wheeliker credits it all to the community’s generosity and Christmas spirit, even during challenging times.

“I know that we’ve all been going through a very difficult time with work and the pandemic and everything and money is tight,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for them we would not have been able to help these families. So a big thank you to everybody that cares so much about their neighbors in central Alberta.”