Cheer Board delivered magic

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2020 (1432 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last week, the Christmas Cheer Board announced that it will be replacing the traditional Christmas hamper with food vouchers because of physical-distancing concerns and the risk to the several thousand volunteers who help the Cheer Board operate.

The Christmas Cheer Board came through for my family in a big way when I was a little kid.

Back then we didn’t have a lot, but we didn’t realize it. We lived in low-income Manitoba housing, in a neighbourhood bursting with kids. The housing complex was like its own little world.

I didn’t know it then, but my parents were barely scraping by at times. They were young and had probably bitten off more than they could chew by having three kids in the span of six years. My dad went to university and worked overnights as an orderly; my mom stayed home with us and sold Tupperware. Money was tight, but my mom is creative and frugal. She can stretch a dollar farther than anyone I know.

Still, sometimes that wasn’t enough.

It’s not as if we fell on hard times, either. This was just the way our life was. We lived meagerly but contentedly. At the risk of sounding cheesy, what we lacked in money and things we made up for in other ways. We were happy.

We never went to bed hungry, though sometimes, on those dreadful day-before-payday kind of days, we would have popcorn for dinner because there was nothing else to eat. My mom would spin it and tell us we had been so good, popcorn for supper was our reward.

She always painted a dire situation in rainbows.

Looking back, as a mom, I can’t imagine the grief those kind of days inflicted on her and my dad. But they struggled silently, making sure that their stresses didn’t affect us. It worked. We had a lovely, normal childhood.

Christmas time was especially magical when I was a kid.

In the earliest years of my life, we would get an annual hamper from the Christmas Cheer Board, containing a bounty of food and treats, like the name-brand cookies my mom never bought and milk that was thicker than skim. I remember one year we got a big tin of ribbon candy that my little sister and I gorged on.

Hamper Day was a big part of the holidays. It signalled that Christmas was here.

Back then, I thought everyone got a hamper at Christmas. I didn’t realize it was a lifeline for my parents and other families. I also didn’t realize that the people who volunteered their time and the people who donated money, food and toys to the Cheer Board were the reason that kids like us even got the Christmases we did.

It’s jarring now to realize that so many people I don’t know made such a huge impact on me. They gave us some of the best memories of our lives, and they gave my mom and dad some peace. There’s no real way to thank them. I’ve tried my best over the years to emulate their goodness, to give back and be that person for some other little kids and their families. According to its website, the Christmas Cheer Board provides about 17,000 Christmas hampers to families each year. They rely on about 5,000 community helpers and special events, such the Winnipeg Jets’ toy drives, the Manitoba Moose Teddy Bear Toss, and the TD/St. Vital Christmas Miracle help raise money and donations for families in need.

This year is obviously different, considering large-scale events have been halted because of COVID. However, there’s still hope. Like everything else in this new pandemic normal, we can adapt, we can adjust, and we can be part of it together.

The Cheer Board’s sponsored hamper program, Feed-A-Family, which pairs community groups, businesses, churches and individuals with a hamper family, will proceed this year.

You can make a donation to the Christmas Cheer Board on their website at christmascheerboard.ca.

shelka79@hotmail.com

Twitter: @ShelleyACook