FERGUS – After 26 years of hosting its Christmas toy drive, Reliable Ford is switching it up this season.
In recent years, the dealership would host an event to receive food bank and toy donations. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the local food bank only accepted gift cards.
This change didn’t deter Ford clients from donating, leaving the dealership to give toys to other organizations.
“We’ve really struggled to find homes for the gifts,” Reliable Ford business development manager Justine McCabe told the Advertiser. “We still get an overwhelming response of gifts every year.”
The toys still found a home, but “we would be taking them to other centres outside of our community.”
McCabe didn’t feel right about the donated toys leaving the community, especially because donors weren’t aware it was happening.
“That’s where we kind of shifted with the Children’s Foundation [of Guelph and Wellington],” she explained.
Ford decided to team up with the local organization’s Adopt-A-Family program, but the move didn’t come without challenges.
“For the first year, it’s kind of difficult to gauge how many kids and families to sponsor,” McCabe said. “But so far it’s been going really well.”
Inside the dealership, located at 990 Tower St., is a tree filled with tickets with a child’s age, gender, favourite colour and a gift idea.
Participants can grab a ticket, buy the gift and bring it back to Reliable Ford by Nov. 29.
“We’ve sponsored eight families in total; there are 21 children within those families,” McCabe said.
Each child lists three items with a limit of $150 total. Reliable Ford staff broke the wishes up into single items.
McCabe noted the dealership is still a drop-off location for the Centre Wellington Food Bank for gift card donations until Dec. 13.
“Our community is good to us. We have a great client base and they are so loyal,” she said.
