Grande Prairie’s Centre for Young Parents is ringing in the new year with a special Christmas dinner to show their clients support during the holiday season.
According to Community Engagement Coordinator Heather Tilapaugh, the event is significant for both the centre’s staff and clientele as it welcomes in the Christmas spirit for everyone involved.
“All our staff get together, we essentially cook all day long, and we bring in our clients and their families as well as our volunteers, and we sit down and have a big meal together.”
Tilapaugh says the organization currently supports 54 client families and just under 70 kids with parents aged 14 to 24. However, she adds with the decline in donations, resources have gotten tighter this year.
“At our Christmas Dinners Santa and Mrs. Claus make a special appearance and hand out a small gift to each child that comes, [but], as with everything else in the city we are lacking donations this year across the board.”
“We look at our shelves that are usually full of toys and diapers and they’re getting pretty bare so we are really looking for a Christmas miracle,”
Tilapaugh adds that despite the lack of resources, several young parents are still looking to make the holiday season special for their kids, and many turn to the Centre for Young Parents for aid.
“We have those young parents and some of them are still kids themselves, and they’re working hard trying to make Christmas special for not only themselves but for their kiddos,”
“Typically what happens by this time each year we’ve got some donations from the community and that varies. We get donations of toys, we can get gift cards, personal hygiene items, even cleaning supplies,” she says. “Everybody needs a hand up, it doesn’t matter the age.”
Interested individuals are encouraged to donate at three drop-off locations around the city including the Lions Learning Centre, the CYP’s Project Thrift Shop, and the 2Day FM studio.
