Shop of Wonders opens doors wide for holiday season

By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on November 23, 2022.

Herald photo by Ry Clarke Guests browse Santa's toy room floor at the Shop of Wonders at MyCityCare's pop-up location at 1602 3 Avenue South.

The MyCityCare Team has transformed the location of 1602 3rd Avenue South into a magical toy store for families in need this holiday season.

With a ribbon cutting by Mayor Blaine Hyggen Monday night, the Shop of Wonders is now open for families in need to shop for free with their loved ones this holiday season.

“This is our seventh year doing the program here in Lethbridge,” said Jennifer Tribble with Shop of Wonders. “The shop owner’s program is an experiential Christmas program where families come in, they get to shop for free for their families for Christmas. It is with partnership with Christmas Hope, and we have six other local organizations that we work with and share a database as we serve our local families.”

With the holiday season seeing higher prices across the board, the campaign is happy to see community donations to help keep the program going.

“We have been very fortunate that there have been some generous donations early on. But we definitely are going to need donations heading into December,” said Tribble. “Our first day is (Tuesday, Nov. 22). We have 84 children that are being served, and we have 400 kids to serve this week alone. We will definitely need an influx of donations in the weeks to come as we anticipate to serve over 1500 kids this Christmas.”

Families in need this holiday season can make an appointment at parallelchurch.com/programs/mycitycare/ to register.

“Families make an appointment, they register and then they have a personal shopper that comes with them and helps them through the shopping experience,” said Tribble. “They get to pick from stocking stuffers, they get to pick a couple gifts that we call ‘elf gifts’, they are gifts that are under $15. Then they get to pick one ‘Santa gift’ per child. We help them navigate that process, and we have free gift-wrapping services available. It’s a really fun experience for the whole family.”

Looking to help serve those in need, the Shop will keep its doors open throughout the holiday season to accommodate the need.

“We are going to go as long as we can, but our tentative end date is going to be Dec. 17. But if we have families or emergency situations we are obviously going to help and be able to meet those needs,” said Tribble. “We have seen an increase at this time of year for families registering. I think people are more aware that there is a financial need coming into the Christmas season. Typically, we will start to see an influx in early December for the program. People have been registering for the last few weeks for this particular program, which is early.”

With the holiday season approaching like an Alberta snowstorm, campaigns like the Shop of Wonders will help to make sure everyone has that special gift under the tree on Christmas day.

“(Christmas Hope) share these lists so that no one is missing out,” said Hyggen. “It warms my heart to see everybody come together in a collaborative way to work for our community.

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