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A thousand items donated to the Port Hardy RCMP’s summer toy drive

‘Building strong relationships with the people of our communities is fundamental to our success here’
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Check out all the toys and sports equipment donated to the RCMP’s summer toy drive. (Submitted photo)

The Port Hardy RCMP’s summer toy drive proved to be a big hit and thensome.

Throughout the month of July toys and sports equipment were dropped off in droves at the local RCMP station, filling up a large space in the loading bay.

RELATED: Toy drive all July at the Port Hardy RCMP station

When asked to comment, Acting Detachment Commander Chris Voller stated there was “in the area of 1,000 items” donated. “I was particularly happy to see so many books… [while] Covid has stopped us from travelling and seeing many things, reading allows kids to go to amazing places.”

Voller confirmed the toys and sports equipment will be handed out this week. “We have more toys than kids at this point, so we will be taking them to areas we know they can be used. These toys will be shared with children in all the north Island communities we serve.”

As for what it means to the RCMP to give back through community initiatives like this, Voller stated his team is “grateful for the continued opportunities we are granted to partner with groups and people who share a passion to help affect positive changes where we can. In particular, our members relish these opportunities for pro-active and positive interactions with children, as in our profession often we deal with children who are, or have, been dealing with traumas.”

Voller added that “Many of us are parents as well, believe it or not, we are people too and at the most fundamental level we care about those we serve ion the community; especially children. The RCMP is dedicated to its work because we too are Canadians who want to live and raise our families in safe communities. Building strong relationships with the people of our communities is fundamental to our success here. I am not obtuse to the fact that many communities don’t share quite the same relationship that we are so fortunate to have with our communities up here. I am not suggesting that we don’t still have room for improvement ourselves, more so, I want to emphasise that we appreciate the fulsome community support we receive here while we work towards furthering our relationship, shared community goals, and overall service standard.”

The Port Hardy RCMP would like to acknowledge everyone who chipped in to make the toy drive be as successful as it was, in particular:

The dedicated team of volunteers and community organizers at the Mount Waddington Health Network, Leslie Dyck and the Mount Waddington Literacy Society, Port Hardy Rotary, CIBC, Hardy Builders Supply, Vancouver Island Regional Library, and the Hardy Bay Drug Store.


@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com

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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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