REGINA - The Regina Christmas Wish List for over 15 years have been giving Christmas gifts to individuals or families most in need.
Jason Bandrua, facilitator for the Regina Christmas Wish List, explained how the idea for the event started from a simple interaction.
"The roots of [the event] are actually out in Vancouver. There was a husband and wife, that were out for a walk one day down by the water, and they went in to get a little muffin or something at a coffee shop. They saw a guy sleeping on a park bench outside. So they grabbed an extra muffin and coffee and came out and asked him if he wanted to sit back up. They sat down [with the person, and] they shared their little snack and asked a few questions, and he started telling their story, and they were surprised how quickly they felt some sort of connection to a stranger," said Bandura.
From there, the couple went home thinking about the interaction and got an idea for Christmas.
"They [eventually] partnered up with a shelter or two and said, 'we [the couple] got an idea if we could do interviews and we could capture stories? We [the couple] tagged on gift requests. We think that people would feel something for a stranger just like we did, and we think they'd give gifts to people they didn't even know," he said.
According to Bandura, the event started out on a very small scale back in the 2000s in Vancouver. Eventually, the idea spread around the western part of North America.
He pointed out that most cities have fazed out the event, except Regina, which kept going forward with it.
The event started in Regina In 2008. At the time, Bandura was working at the Glen Elm Church of Christ in Regina when a buddy of his from Calgary told him about the event they were doing in the city. Bandura thought the idea was amazing and jumped at it.
The first Regina Christmas Wish List they ran started out on a small scale and has since grown to help many families in the city.
The way it works is the volunteers of the event partner with organizations across the city that provide various ways of support to those most in need.
Each of those partners can inform residents or others who are part of their programs that they can share their stories and have an opportunity to receive a gift.
One of those organizations is North Central Family Centre. Jamiy Moran, the program director of North Central Family Centre, explained how they were able to find people who were in need over the holidays.
"So we talked to as many [families] as we could [to support these] families that way, and then we also have housing and outreach folks that we work with. [So], some of the families [got] interconnect[ed] that way through our programs. We also work with individuals in there, and so the workers who work with those folks know the needs of them. And so they interviewed the people who they thought would benefit the most from this," said Moran.
After the interview is completed, either a worker from the organization will submit a summary of the story or a volunteer with the Regina Christmas Wish List will condense the interview into a paragraph.
The paragraph is then put on their website, which gives a description of the individual or family story and what they’re most in need of for the holidays.
According to Moran, the North Central Family Centre alone sent 35 stories this year. For each story, the amount that is needed can be different based on if it is a single person or a family.
Bandura mentioned there is a two-gift per-person cap, meaning a family of seven can ask for 14 gifts, while a single individual can only receive two. There is also no guarantee that the family will receive the gift, but the organizers do mention that fact before they conduct the interviews.
One of the bigger challenges the Regina Christmas Wish List has faced this year is the number of gift requests, which was over 1,000 requests. Compared to two years ago, the Regina Christmas Wish List received around 700 gift requests.
Bandura explained the organization likes to achieve around 90 per cent of the gift request each year. There was some worries that the organization would not hit this mark because of the rising need for gifts.
Moran chimed in on the reason why there is a higher number of people needing gifts. "The cost of living going up is definitely one. Honestly, like [I feel] politics has a lot to do with a lot of different things, too. Different policies, like even around social income supports, right? It's changed in the last two years where, like [these] families and people actually get less money under social income supports. And as inflation goes up [during] the year. Your gap is increasing."
She added, "folks in North Central don't always have the best landlords and or the best housing[or] housing conditions. They're paying utilities on their own. You're in an old house [with] old windows [that are] leaking. [These] people [in their homes] have blankets in front of their windows and doors so that they can keep the cold air out, [keeping the price of] utilities lower. But like [the cost of] utilities are way higher than they should [be, so it can] be [a challenge] just living in some of the housing [units] that they don't have [other] options."
Even with the rising challenges of people around Regina, over 900 gifts have been pledged to the Regina Christmas Wish List, meaning the event has obtained its yearly goals.
Seeing those numbers, Bandura felt it was "quite impressive to me. There's a lot of really amazing people here. We've got all sorts of needs. Of course we do. But we've got all sorts of amazing people who are happy to jump in the trench and try to make a difference, too."
While the Regina Christmas Wish List has wrapped up for this year, Bandura discussed what people should do next year if they want to contribute. "They should check the social media channels for Regina Christmas Wish List. Facebook, Twitter [and] Instagram are all the places where things would stay live. Our website is reginachristmaswishlist.com. It's largely a place to just glean information until November, when it starts to be quite an active place. And stories start going up and whatnot. But it would be a place that at least people could get informed. Bookmark it. Know that if they contact us, we'll put them on the email list. And when things are active, they would be in the loop and ready for 2025."
