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Generations Foundation’s Holiday Toy and Food Drive in Montreal wraps up

Click to play video: 'Generations Foundation wraps up successful 2022 Holiday Toy and Food Drive'
Generations Foundation wraps up successful 2022 Holiday Toy and Food Drive
The Generations Foundation helps feed school children all year long and during the holidays, they also hand out Christmas gifts. But the effort to collect the toys is months in the making. And as Global's Gloria Henriquez reports, it takes a village to make this colossal effort happen – Dec 21, 2022

Adrian and Natalie Bercovici are like real life Mr. and Mrs. Claus, spreading love and cheer everywhere they go.

“We don’t have our hats today, we came ‘chapeauless’,” Natalie Bercovici joked about not wearing their Santa hats.

But hats are off to them this week as they wrap another year of helping children have a better Christmas.

“It has grown from 2 to 3,000 to well over 5,000 toys so… how do you wrap [all that]? First of all, I couldn’t afford the paper,” Adrian Bercovici said in laughter.
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So this year, it’s a little different. Instead of organizing their traditional gift-wrapping party, the Bercovicis got together with those who helped them put their drive together.

Local toy company Mega Blocks has donated thousands of toys throughout the years.

“I’m very excited,” said Annalisa Batista-Ferrera, Director of global brand marketing at Mega Blocks. “We’ve been partnering with the Generations Foundation for over 15 years now and the work that they do, Natalie and Adrian  — wonderful individuals — is really important for the community.”

The Provigo on Saint-Jacques also helped by setting up donation boxes in their store and by selling bags to customers that contain food items that will also be donated.

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“When I met Adrian, you saw right away in his eyes, his passion, how much they work for to help people,” said Vahe Kevork, the store director for Provigo Saint-Jacques.

The American Ladies Club organized a toy tea drive as well.

“We raised an SUV full of toys that we delivered to them,” said Jeanne Calabrese, the co-chair of the American Women’s Club Toy Teas.

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HSBC Bank Canada has been helping for many years as well.

“When I heard that kids out there would go to school with empty stomach and be hungry in class, that hurt me a lot,” said Mai Hueng a private banker for HSBC who has participated in the bank’s efforts since 2008.

“We all say that children are our future. By doing this, we are helping our future.”

This year, Best Buy jumped on the Generations bandwagon, too, donating money as well as toys they collected at their stores and bought themselves.

“The response was amazing,” said Thierry Lopez, Quebec’s marketing and corporate affairs manager at Best Buy Canada. “It’s been great to see how generous people are.”

Global News was also able to deliver a truckload of toys and donations thanks to you, who responded to our call for donations.

Your generosity is making a true difference this Christmas.

But the work doesn’t end here.

The Generations Foundation continues to raise money and donations to feed school children throughout the year.

“We do a lot for Christmas, but we concentrate the whole year to make sure every kid has an opportunity [to eat],” said Adrian Bercovici.”You can’t study with an empty stomach.”
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A full belly and soul for Christmas and beyond — a wish the Bercovicis, real-life Santas, work to fulfill year-round.

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