Big happy Cheer Board family

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This article was published 02/12/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most people would have kept driving.

One winter day, 13 years ago, Ron Paul saw the Christmas Cheer Board of Winnipeg sign and made an impulsive decision to pull into the warehouse parking lot.

“I just retired, so, I figured I better do something. So, I saw the Christmas Cheer Board sign and I just went in, and they put me to work right away,” he said with a laugh.

Paul, 80, has volunteered with the charity every holiday season since then.

He points to the friendships he’s developed with other volunteers, and how enjoyable it is meeting new people every day as people from different schools, workplaces, teams, and groups help fill up boxes on the hamper line.

“That kind of makes it special,” said Paul.

Sheila Worboys, 69, is in her first year on the hamper-packing team, but she’s no stranger to the charity. She spent the past 13 years in the office as an administration manager.

“It’s interesting. Even in the office, people that have volunteered who then lose a spouse, it’s hard for them to come back, but they come back because of the camaraderie, and it keeps them busy,” said Worboys.

“It’s like this is our Christmas Cheer Board family.”

It’s a hard-working family.

Some get started as early as October to build and organize a functional warehouse space, and they’ll put in hours until Jan. 9 when they must have everything cleared out of the facility at 895 Century St.

The process of putting the hampers together began Nov. 17 and they’ve been rolling along since then. The board estimates a record 19,000 food hampers will be distributed this year, compared with 18,313 in 2022.

There are more than 300 volunteers, including a core group of roughly 15 who are on site full time.

“We choose to be here all the time,” said Worboys.

“When the hampers start to be picked up and delivered, some of us are here seven days a week,” added Paul.

Rick Gill, a warehouse team leader, is in his 18th year.

“My wife (Susan) is in charge of the donations here and she started two years before I did. Then when I retired in ‘06, she was like ‘Well, you’ve got to drive me, so, you might as well stay,’” Gill, 69, said.

He’s been more than happy to do so.

When groups come in to help, they sit down, and Gill gives them a five-minute orientation about their tasks on the hamper line.

Ideally, the line has 25 volunteers , each of whom is assigned to a station. As the hampers make their way down, they’re loaded up with items such as canned fruit, beans, rice, cookies, peanut butter, and soup before getting taped up and loaded onto a crate.

It sounds simple, but there are a lot of moving parts.

“It would be nice if we didn’t have to be here, but you know, there’s a need,” said Gill. “We’re here, groups are coming in to help us, so it works out good.”

There are reminders daily on why this work is so important. Gill had an interaction a few years ago that remains fresh in his mind.

“A group came in, I gave them the talk, we packed the hampers, and then this little girl comes over and she might’ve been seven or eight years old. She tugged on my sleeve, so I said ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ And she said, ‘My family always gets one of these hampers.’ And it just pulled on my heartstrings, and it has kind of stuck with me throughout this whole thing,” said Gill.

The board isn’t struggling for volunteers at the moment, but those involved worry that could change in the coming years. Most, if not all, are retirees.

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“Every year we all get a little older, with more aches, pains, and different health issues. We’ve got quite a few who are in their 70s, mid-70s. So I always talk to the adult groups when they come in and say, ‘You know what, if you ever get to that point in your life when you retire, got lots of time, and want to do something, we’re always looking for young volunteers,” said Gill.

If a volunteer reaches a stage where they no longer feel well enough to contribute to the effort, it doesn’t change a thing — they’re still a part of the family.

“I’ll phone and say ‘Hey, just come in and say hi.’ We’ve had a couple come in and we’ll sit and have a coffee,” said Gill.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.