Handcrafted gift from the heart

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This article was published 20/12/2024 (295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not all of Santa’s elves pack hampers at the Christmas Cheer Board; one has been busy making wooden ornaments.

Ken Lowe, a retired IT worker, has applied his woodworking hobby to bring a tiny bit of Christmas wonder to a few hundred hamper recipients this season.

Throughout the year, Lowe buys wood, creates designs, cuts them out, and gives them a quick buff with sandpaper. In December, he delivers his “kreations” as he calls them, to be put into hampers.

“I’ve made 800 this year,” said the 63-year-old, who’s in his third season of helping out at the cheer board.

“I did a bit more than I did last year and last year I did a bit more than my first year.”

Lowe said his works, many of which have magnets so they can be put on a refrigerator door, usually have some type of Christmas theme design, but others don’t.

“I try to stay away from Santa,” he said. “He is not bad, but he kind of represents the commercialization of Christmas.

“If you can’t afford a Christmas gift, Santa kind of rubs your face in it. I also stay away from the Grinch. I try to stay with positive things.”

Lowe said he knows how he would feel to get a Santa ornament because there were times in the past in which he’d lost his job and faced hard times.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “I never used the cheer board (because) I’ve got family who helped, but there were years where it was sparse. Christmas just magnifies every trial you are going through.”

One year ago, the cheer board had to shut off its phones for hamper applications for the first time in its 105-year history, after demand skyrocketed.

This year, the opposite is true.

Executive director Shawna Bell said about 20,000 hampers have been spoken for this year, a few hundred less than last year’s campaign.

Bell said it’s unknown why the number is down. The phone lines are open if people need help.

“Maybe more people are doing OK, but I have a hard time to believe that,” she said.

“It could be that in the last couple of years we have gone directly to the people who came from Ukraine. We didn’t do that this year and that’s 2,000 hampers.

“We can still handle another 1,200 to 1,400 hampers (because) we already bought the food. We are open on Christmas Eve until 2 p.m., and the 27th and 28th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. People can even come in person and apply.”

Bell said monetary donations and age-appropriate gifts for children aged eight to 14 are needed.

“It is so hard to find toys for those ages,” she said.

In terms of Lowe’s ornaments, Bell said volunteers are both thrilled and in awe of them.

Bell said the first ones were packed in hampers destined to feed families with six members or more while the rest will likely go in hampers for single people.

“The items he makes are amazing,” she said. “He really wants to make sure people have a Merry Christmas.”

The annual Free Press Miracle on Mountain fundraiser that supports the cheer board hopes readers will help the cause by sending in a donation. Donations by mail can make it through now that the Canada Post strike is over. There’s still time to drop something in the mail and get a 2024 tax receipt in return.

After all, just like the woodwork creations made by Lowe, even something little can make a Christmas season more magical.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca