2020 is expected to be the most challenging year ever for the Chatham Goodfellows.
Director Tim Mifflin says for everyone’s safety, their No Child Without a Christmas campaign is going online, including their annual Porchlight drive.
“We’re going to have an online Porchlight Campaign. We haven’t finalized the date but it’s going to be as close to the first Monday in December, which is always when we have the Porchlight,” Mifflin says. “What we’re going to do is ask the folks in Chatham-Kent to actually turn their porchlight on, but go to our website and if they can afford to do it, make a donation, an electronic transfer, to the Goodfellows.”
Mifflin says there will be no Street Sales portion of the campaign this year, but once a physical location has been established, donors will be able to drop-off food and toys for the Christmas baskets.
Mifflin expects donations will be down this year because of the pandemic, but the need is likely going to rise.
“At the end of the day, even with all the donations that we receive, and we’re very grateful for those, we spend between $170-200,000 on food and toys,” Mifflin says. “We do have some money in reserve, but we don’t know how long COVID’s going to affect everyone, so we are trying to get as close to normal as possible.”
Another difference to this year’s campaign will be the packaging and delivery of toys and food. Mifflin says physical distancing will mean limiting the number of volunteers.
“We have never had to deal with this before, we’re working very diligently and we’ve been meeting all summer. We are all committed to make sure it’s going to be successful, it’s just going to be much different.”
Last year, the Goodfellows provided support to more than 1400 families across the municipality.
Mifflin says pandemic or not, the goal is still to make sure everyone in Chatham-Kent is able to have a good Christmas.