The Holiday Helpers

by Sara Mahmood

April Rutka and her sister Sarah have been taking the spirit of giving to a whole new level for the past 13 years.

Back in 1999, they heard about a family who had lost everything in a fire just before Christmas. Although the family was receiving lots of gifts and money, they weren’t given a tree. So, the sisters canvassed through their friends and families and collected decorations and money to buy the family an artificial tree.

Their charity has gone a long way since that first Christmas and now they have donated packages (with much more than trees) to over 550 families in the Greater Toronto Area. They’ve also had a documentary made about their organization, The Holiday Helpers. I was able to watch a screening of the film last week.

The documentary did a great job of balancing the sentimental moments and keeping it serious and informative. It would’ve been really easy to tell a lot of touching stories and exploit viewers’ emotions, but the few sentimental scenes – some more subtle and some more obvious – was just the right mix. Obviously, we got to see the touching moment when a family received their gifts, but we also heard smaller stories that were heart-wrenching. One committee member talked about asking families what they wanted and the mother asked for food certificates because sometimes they go without food. The scene was very short, but at the same time it’s devastating to think someone has to ask for food.

One of the reasons the Holiday Helpers stands out from other charities is that it is completely volunteer-run. No one gets paid for anything, and all the money collected goes into giving the families the best gifts possible.  To be honest, I was shocked at how good the presents the charity gives out are. I expected some small gift baskets, but the Holiday Helpers give out a couple of large boxes and a Christmas tree (if requested) to every family. It’s amazing to see how big people’s hearts get around Christmas and how much the Holiday Helpers can achieve.

If you think about documentaries, there aren’t many that go behind the scenes of a charity. Through the film, I got to see not only the families’ reaction to getting the gifts, but also the hard work and the long hours in the freezing cold that are put into giving these families an extra special Christmas. When the team was moving boxes for delivery outside, you could see everyone’s noses were bright pink from the cold. The Rutka sisters both admitted that they didn’t even get to start on their Christmas shopping until everything was done with the Holiday Helpers. One of the volunteers interviewed in the film put it best when he said volunteering with the Holiday Helpers takes just a few hours of your time and “we have all the time in the world”.

To find out more about the Holiday Helpers and the documentary, visit http://www.holidayhelpers.org/.

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office.