Boston Pizza was bustling upstairs and down Wednesday, Dec. 14 as the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre (CDC) and Goat FM held the annual Christmas Wish Breakfast.
People of all ages arrived in groups to enjoy breakfast carrying donations of toys and cash to help the CDC distribute gifts to children in the Williams Lake area this Christmas.
Vanessa Riplinger, CDC executive director, said it was going well and that she was happy with how many volunteers were helping out.
“We’ve had amazing volunteers show up and the community has come out in droves with lots of toys,” she said. “Our community is such a giving community.”
Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson was serving coffee and said he had brought a truck load of new toys from an agency in 100 Mile House to add to the donations.
“The agency received a lot this year and wanted to give back,” he said.
“Last week I took a load of toys from Williams Lake to 100 Mile House for some immigrants from Ukraine. It’s the way the Cariboo works - it spreads out its giving.”
Williams Lake RCMP Staff Sgt. Del Byron and Const. Adam Hildebrandt were on hand to help load up toys in an RCMP van for transport from Boston Pizza to the CDC.
All of the gifts are then placed in age groupings on tables for local agencies to come select gifts for children which they were expected to do on Thursday, Riplinger said.
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monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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