Corus Radio London raises nearly $34k in annual toy drive for The Salvation Army

Corus Radio London is looking to make sure everyone gets a holiday with its annual Drive-Thru Toy Drive, sponsored by Cake Criminal Defence.

980 CFPL, along with sister stations FM96, Fresh Radio and Country 104, collected toys, cash, and gift cards in a “drive up, drop off” toy drive at the Delta Armouries in downtown London on Thursday.

The toy drive raised over $33,840, and collected thousands of toys for families in need.

All donations support the Salvation Army’s Christmas Hamper Program, which provides those in need with toys and food gift cards to make sure families have a good Christmas.

“This is a day we look forward to every year. It really kind of bolsters what we have on hand to give out to folks,” said Nancy Kerr, executive director at Salvation Army London.

“We’ve got everybody back out at the North Pole, sorting this stuff, putting it out on the tables.”

New this year, Salvation Army London switched up the format, allowing families to pick and choose the toys they wished to receive.

The toys donated were brought back to the Western Fair District Agriplex, or the “North Pole” as Kerr puts it, where families are allowed to choose one large item and a medium or small item.

The toy drive is part of the 12 Hours of Hope broadcast, featuring 12 hours of content from the Corus London stations on the charity campaign, which has been running for more than a decade.

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The station raised more than $27,000 in last year’s drive. While more was raised this year, Kerr says that Londoners have been through some tough times.

“We see it in our food bank that the numbers were just growing. Unfortunately, we can still only serve a certain number of people. But the community comes together to try to work together and make sure everybody gets something at Christmas time,” Kerr said.

Over 15,000 individuals registered for the Christmas assistance program this year, or around 4,200 families.

Currently, the greatest area of need is in the nine-to-12 age range, due to difficulty in finding gifts and rising costs.

According to Kerr, another area of need is for volunteers for the Salvation Army’s kettle campaign.

“If the kennels are not manned or persons, then they’re not going to get filled. And we’re not quite hitting our target where we hope to be at this point in time. So certainly having volunteers out and having people fill those kettles is really important for us. ”

While the Holiday season is far from over, Kerr says next year’s campaign is already in the works.

“Honestly, we probably talk about Christmas all year round. We always have a wrap-up and talk about, ‘OK, what worked well this year? What can we tweak? And every year we change something.”

Donations can be dropped off at the Agriplex from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m until Dec. 21.

The London Fire Department’s Station No. 1 on Horton Street is also open 24/7.

Westmount Shopping Centre, CF Masonville Place and White Oaks Mall will be hosting a drop-off location until Dec. 24.