Bloor St. W., west of Hwy 427
Toronto, Ontario

The Markland Homes Association is pleased to announce:

The Markland Wood - 39th Annual Christmas Caravan & Annual Food Drive.

Last year, the packers in the transport truck were kept busy throughout the day organizing hundreds of bags and boxes of donations. When the days collecting was over and the truck unloaded, we were awestruck with the amount of food stacked neatly in piles. Through the generous donations of our community, we greatly surpassed all previous years donations with over 572 boxes or approx. 17,000 pounds of food and $475.00 in cash! Well done Markland!

The charities that benefit are:
The Salvation Army,
The Brothers of the Good Shepherd,
The Scott Mission,
The money is donated to The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund.

The Caravan usually consists of a Police sound vehicle, a bright red Fire Truck, a transport truck, to sort and pack the food, and dozens of cheery elves and, of course, Santa!

The parade starts at the Markland Wood Plaza at 9:00 a.m., where we greet new "Caravaners " and all the "old regulars ". We'll be visiting the north side of Bloor Street in the morning. We stop for a lunch break at the Bloordale United Church, where a hot lunch is served. Barbequed hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches and hot/cold drinks as well as some snacks are on the menu. After lunch, we'll continue on the south side of Bloor Street. Our elves will be winding up and down every street, stopping at each home to pick up your bags of groceries and bringing them to the curbside for loading on the truck. Please don't disappoint our little elves. The more you contribute, the happier they'll be! We'll return to the plaza, tired but excited, around 3:30 p.m. Finally, we'll unload the many boxes of already sorted food into my garage for the charities to pick up on Monday morning. This all sounds pretty exciting doesn't it??? Well it is!!! Just ask your neighbours. You can't imagine the joy we all feel when all is done.

We do this every year, because of the great need to help. What other group do you know that contributes like this and for as long as we have? Thirty-nine years is a long time and Marklanders do it proudly and cheerfully.

Students, please note, this is a community hours certified event.

Official Website: http://www.marklandwood.org

Added by tomnap on August 28, 2006

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