Greendell Park Community Centre hosts annual children’s shopping spree

To kick off the month of December and the Christmas season, the Greendell Park Community Centre hosted its annual children’s shopping spree Sunday afternoon, allowing kids to come and pick out a special gift for their loved ones.

“They have fun, the parents appreciate it because they love waking up Christmas morning with stuff that they had no clue with what they were getting, and how funny it is because when a child thinks of a product or an item they think their dad or mom would love, it just blows their mind,” said Lori Oxenforth,  Volunteer Organizer, Children’s Shopping Spree.

The Children’s Shopping Spree is an exciting event kids look forward to each year as it gives them an opportunity to completely surprise their loves ones on Christmas morning. People were lined up starting at 11am, with hundreds of children coming out to shop.

“It was pretty cool because we get to look at lots of fun things,” said a child shopper.

The community centre’s gym was split in half, with the shopping spree on one side, and a gift wrapping station on the other side, where dozens of volunteers helped the children add the finishing touches to their presents.

“It just makes me happy because not everybody always has a chance, not everybody can go to Walmart and get $800 worth of gifts and lego’s and this and that, so craft sales like these are really awesome and it helps a lot of people out so being part of that makes me feel good,” said Ryder Vandal, Volunteer, Children’s Shopping Spree.

All items at the shopping spree ranged between $25 cents to two dollars, with all of the funds raised being used to support next year’s shopping spree.

Event organizers estimated that anywhere between $200-$400 dollars would be raised and said donations from the community have made a big difference for them.

“The donations have been awesome it’s been overwhelming the last week, it’s been non-stop we had two rooms full of donations, I would say this is probably one of the best years,” said Oxenforth.

After another successful year for the Children’s Shopping Spree, Oxenforth says it will definitely be back in 2025.