Coins really can change a child’s Christmas.
The Nanaimo News Bulletin’s annual Coins for Kids campaign got underway at the beginning of December and continues through next week, and we’re asking readers to please consider supporting the drive.
All the money raised goes to presents for children. Everyone deserves a merry Christmas, and we think it’s even more important to do our best to ensure that kids enjoy the season and its traditions. That might take more than a toy in a box, but at the same time, properly stuffed stockings must surely have an intangible effect on a whole family’s Christmas. Good feelings and fond memories matter, and our community’s generosity does help create those things, every year.
Even back when the charity was Pennies for Presents, the pennies added up – we’ve collected more than $170,000 over the past 20 years. Why can’t we give exponentially more, with nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, toonies and banknotes?
Coins for Kids is one of countless charitable causes to which we can choose to donate at this time of year. Some are linked with churches and religious messaging, some are secular, and those are factors we can consider, or not, when we give to charity. There are so many important initiatives that do make a difference and are worthy of our generosity, and we also applaud and support the community volunteerism that helps make them so successful.
Ours is simple and straightforward – coins for kids. We’ll donate every cent to the Great Nanaimo Toy Drive and the Nanaimo Boys and Girls Club and leave it to those capable groups to purchase the gifts and give them to the kids to whom those presents will mean the most.
Please consider dropping off coins to our office at 777 Poplar St., or other drop-off points around the city, including at Quality Foods grocery stores.
Coins make great gifts, and maybe they can mean more than that, too.