Christmas Cheer and Toys for Tots launch 2025 campaign
For the next month, the Christmas Cheer Fund and Toys for Tots will be raising money to supply families with children in poverty with food, toys, and clothing.
The goal of the campaign is to make sure every child in the city has a gift to unwrap and a full stomach on Christmas Day.
The Christmas Cheer Fund works to offer one week’s worth of food, including supplies for a turkey dinner, to families in need. On the other end, Toys for Tots contributes toys and clothing.
“Thunder Bay definitely has deep pockets, and they show up for those in need,” says Jill Thompson, who chairs the Christmas Cheer Fund.
The Christmas Cheer Fund hopes to raise $280,000 this year, and Toys for Tots is aiming to raise $180,000.
A large part of the fundraising for the Christmas Cheer Fund comes from Acadia Broadcasting’s own 36 Hours of Cheer marathon broadcast, where donations will be collected outside the station’s office at 91 Cumberland Street. The 36-hour campaign runs on December 4 and 5.
Toys for Tots, meanwhile, began as a program run by the city’s firefighters, and now runs collaboratively with the Christmas Cheer Fund.
“I couldn’t imagine not being able to give your kid a toy at Christmas,” says Rob Wilson, a local firefighter and chair of Toys for Tots. “I think I can relate with that, and I think every one of our guys on our membership can agree with that. So we like to come here, collect the money, and help out these families that really could use this at this time of year.”
The Christmas Cheer Fund concludes with a giveaway of its food hampers on December 17 and 18, which will take place at the Coliseum building on the CLE grounds.
Thompson says that each year the gratitude of recipients is clear to see: “You see it every year when people come to pick up, it’s just super heartwarming,” she adds.
Toys for Tots will be collecting its donations until December 20. This year, they plan to provide over 4000 children with more than 1,200 toys, as well as hundreds of hoodies, and thousands of gloves and mittens.
