Bradford teen sisters Emily and Sarah Dahlgren have been working hard over the past few months putting together, organizing and coordinating their first ever holiday hampers, in partnership with The Helping Hand Food Bank.
On Sunday, the ladies along with family, friends and members of council were on hand at the Lion's Park building to help stuff the hampers with donated items for families in need.
While the food bank hampers will include all the ingredients for a delicious, filling Christmas dinner, the Dahlgreen sisters’ hampers will include all the ‘extras’ for an even happier and cozy holiday, with items like hot chocolate, speciality crackers, maple syrup, festive napkins, cookies, and even pet food. There are 200 hampers filled with $75 worth of items inside, all donated by various companies, big and small, who the sisters had written to in an effort to help support the campaign.
The girls said they received so many donations that they have enough for the food bank to keep on hand until after the holidays.
Each hamper has been specially customized for each family, depending on number of people and pets in the household and dietary restrictions.
The girls along with their mother, Sandra, say they are grateful for all the support they have received from the businesses, Town of BWG staff, council and community members.
Sandra is very proud of all the work her daughters have put into the initiative over the past few months: pitching campaign letters to businesses, manning booths at various town events selling seasonal decor items as part of their fundraising efforts to fill the hampers, and working with the Bradford food bank and the town in getting the community on board to help those in need.
“It’s been phenomenal,” said Sandra.
Sandra noted that her daughters itch to help others started when the girls were just seven and nine years old, when they organized their own food bank fundraiser at the former Giant Tiger store in Bradford. In an effort to prevent the store’s location from closing down, the girls had set up a table at the front of the store with a list of much needed items at the food bank, encouraging shoppers to purchase and donate.
“They raised 27 milk crates full of food and $700, so I think that was the beginning,” Sandra explained about the event that kicked off of the girls’ community fundraising projects.
Emily, who won Junior Citizen of the Year this past summer in Bradford noted that she “wanted to give back in a bigger way” and from there made contact with the Helping Hand Food Bank to create the festive hamper campaign.
The hampers will be distributed on Thursday evening at Holy Martyrs of Japan Church along with the Christmas hampers from the food bank.
