Santa’s helpers were hard at work on Thursday stuffing 650 stockings with gifts for patients at Lethbridge’s Chinook Regional Hospital.
Wendy Bushell, a volunteer with the Operation Christmas stocking project, said this annual event helps bring some Christmas cheer to patients spending time in the hospital over the holidays.
“Nobody wants to be in the hospital at Christmas,” she said.
“It’s sad that people have to be in the hospital over the Christmas holidays, but this is just a way of us saying, ‘We wish you well.'”
The project is made possible through generosity from the community.
Every year, stockings are donated to the cause by local organizations and residents — some are even hand-stitched to add a personal touch for the patients.
Barbara Larson, another volunteer with the project, said stockings are then filled with products from the hospital’s gift shop.
“There are combs and candies and toothbrushes and gamebooks,” she said.
Each stocking also contains a special note from a child, a sentiment that Bushell said means a lot to many patients.
“One of the best things they like is the letters of hope which are made by school children in Lethbridge,” she said.
“The kids write little letters, just wishing the patients well and saying that they’re sorry to hear they’re in the hospital and they hope they have a good time.
“That’s one of the highlights for people, getting a letter from a child at Chirstmas.”
Bushell said the project was started more than 20 years ago by mothers in the maternity ward, but soon grew to encompass all patients in the hospital.
“The mothers who were in the hospital that delivered babies on Christmas Eve were giving their babies Christmas stockings. That was the original intent,” she said.
“Now it’s grown from there, and we make sure that every patient in the hospital gets a stocking on Christmas Day.”
It took more than 20 volunteers to stuff the stockings on Thursday.
The festive gifts will be delivered to all patients at the Chinook Regional Hospital on Dec. 25.
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