Cochrane's Stuff-A-Bus fills two buses with donated toys and food

Another extremely successful Stuff-A-Bus event, put on by the Cochrane and Area Events Society (CAES). 

Cochrane residents showed up to fill a school bus and a COLT bus to the brim with food and toy donations for the Cochrane Activettes Share your Christmas program. 

CAES chair Marina Chabbert says this event is heartwarming to see each year because they know the impact it has on so many local families.

"The bus was full once again of toys and we received a lot of donations in food and monetary as well. It's even more than what you visually see because there's two buses. It just warms everybody's heart to do an event like this." 

Erika Richards, secretary with CAES says even though a lot of people are experiencing hard times, they still showed up and gave what they could. 

"Everybody has just been incredibly generous. I think when people are struggling they think about how fortunate they are and how if they can give a little bit, they will and I think a lot of those people have dug deep and made an effort because they know what it's like." 

Santa was also on hand to take photos with local children. 

Helping to fill the buses was 500 teddy bears from the 29th annual Calgary Hitmen's Teddy Bear Toss.

Volunteers packed up the bears and brought them back to Cochrane after the game on Dec. 3. 

The Activettes expect to hand out more than 400 hampers to local families in need.

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, CochraneNow encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the CochraneNow app.