It was a hectic scene at the Salvation Army warehouse in southeast Calgary Saturday afternoon.
Dozens of volunteers were busy dropping off and sorting toys that will be provided to families in need this Christmas.
One of the volunteers dropping off toys is Lisa Threthewey.
Thretheway cleans houses in Calgary by day. On nights and weekends, she’s busy raising money for the Salvation Army,the charity that helped her when she was in need.
“They helped me when I was younger,” Threthewey said.
It all started one Christmas when she was nine and a local charity bus came to her family’s home in Castleridge, surprising her with toys.
“It wasn’t going to be much of a Christmas because my family didn’t have much money, and a bus rolled up and my parents told me they were from the Salvation Army,” Thretheway said. “And both me and my brother got toys.
“It was just a hard time. Just barely paying the bills. I didn’t even realize it was that bad until the bus showed up and Santa Claus got off the bus.
“The bus was awesome,” she laughed. “It turned out to be OK. You don’t need much to make a good Christmas, just family.”
Now, Threthewey is in the business of giving. She started with collecting bottles and cans to buy toys. But then Thretheway came up with a better idea. She started Lisa’s Helping Hand, a Facebook page where she runs an online auction that takes in donated household items that people bid on.
Last year, Lisa’s Helping Hand raised $2,000 and this year, nearly $3,000, which translated into 469 toys for the Salvation Army.
“I just like helping people and everybody is trying to get rid of stuff right? It’s like a circle,” Threthewey said.
Longtime friends say Threthewey is as enterprising as she is generous.
“She is probably one of the most giving people I’ve ever known in my entire life,” Jolene de Zeeuw said.
“It’s pretty incredible because it’s not really a concept that’s been really taken advantage of in our city yet,” de Zeeuw said.”I think that social media is a huge thing these days and I think it’s a wonderful thing that she can take donations from people and actually re-purpose them into money to give things, brand-new to other people. So I think it’s really innovative that way.”
Threthewey credits the success of her online fundraising to simple hard work and lots of helping hands.
The Salvation Army thinks Lisa’s online auction initiative to raise funds is outstanding.
“She brings the community, she brings family and she brings friends to go and donate and to bring something to help families in need at Christmas,” Cheryl Dureski, assistant Christmas program coordinator with the Salvation Army, said.
All the items that are donated to Lisa’s Helping Hand that aren’t sold are donated to local homeless shelters.
Comments