The CTV and MOVE 100 Toy Mountain campaign has one simple goal, to give each child in Ottawa a gift to open on Christmas morning.
Thursday morning, thousands of toys were delivered by Ottawa firefighters to the Toy Mountain headquarters at the Carlingwood Shopping Centre for sorting by volunteers from the Salvation Army, the Ottawa Sens Foundation and Bell Media.
“This is the culmination of all of the effort of a ton of firefighters, a ton of community members, and a ton of the public,” said Cameron Taylor of the Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association.
The dropped-off toys were collected during the Help Santa Toy Parade and Santa’s Parade of Lights, which Taylor helped organize. He says seeing the community rally around the Toy Mountain campaign never gets old.
“We feel really fortunate to be able to be involved in our community and help out. And this is another way that everyone can come together as a community and try to make a small difference,” Cameron said. “It’s all a part of it. We’re just happy to be here.”
The Salvation Army, who are partners of Toy Mountain, says with rising costs of living, the need for donations continues to grow.
“What we see is the community coming together, certainly through the Help Santa Toy Parade and through the Orleans Parade of Lights. All of those toys are now at Toy Mountain headquarters,” said Glen Van Gulik of The Salvation Army. “So, our teams from the Ottawa Sens Foundation and of course, Bell Media; incredible partners coming to sort those toys.”
Inside the toy sorting centre, volunteers were hard at work.
“We are at Toy Mountain right now, about to sort a whole bunch of toys for girls and boys around Ottawa,” said MOVE 100’s Sophie Moroz.
“A lot of donations have come in from the parades, but it continues,” said MOVE 100’s Jeff Hopper. “Toymountain.ca, if you want to make a donation. But we’re super happy to get all these toys for Christmas morning,”
From arrival to delivery, each gift was handled with care.
“They arrive on this table where they’re all sorted and counted so that every toy that comes in we know is going to be going back out to a family,” Van Gulik said.
“From there, all those toys get put onto the tables, organized by age group and then those toys can be put together in bags, and then they can actually be delivered to families in need.”
As the toys pile up and the bags fill up, the Toy Mountain push continues.
Donations are accepted until Dec. 19. For a full list of drop-off locations in Ottawa, visit: https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/toy-mountain/