Two Carlyle businesses have teamed up to create Christmas cheer for area kids- from infancy to age 16.
The Dairy Queen and The Bargain Shop have combined forces this year to gather gifts for kids, and each year, the local Angel Tree program makes a concerted effort to reach as many area children and teens in need as possible, even beyond the Christmas season.
Dairy Queen owner Donna Mryglod says the program originated through DQ's head office. When it ceased to be a national program, Mryglod, her husband Garth, and their daughters, Alica and Robin, “carried on.”
“We kept on doing it in the Carlyle store,” says Mryglod. “ We've been doing it since 1995. We liked the community approach and so did our customers. It works out well.”
“In the past, most of the toys we gathered went to the Salvation Army. Now, we look at different entities in the area and district to see where we can do the most good. One year, some of the gifts went to Transition House in Regina, because our daughter was in university and did some work there. Families in this area that have gone to Transition House, too.”
“This year, we're talking to Envision (Counselling). That's one of the entities we're talking to. We want to help kids within the area and district. It's all about people in our community giving to our community.”
Betty Jack of The Bargain Shop agrees. “This is the first year we've done this at the store. We just kind of decided to do it and see how it was going to go.”
“We set a high goal of $1,000 and we exceeded it. We collected well over $1,000 worth of toys and we bought toys with any cash donations we received.”
“It really warmed my heart that we could do something to help someone who is struggling and that our customers are so willing to help someone who may be a complete stranger to them, or someone they may not even know is struggling.”
“If we haven't been in that situation ourselves, we may know someone who hasn't been as lucky as we are.”
Although The Bargain Shop is finished collecting toys for this year, Mryglod says the Carlyle Dairy Queen will accept donations of unwrapped gifts for boys and girls from infants to age 16, “right up until we close the doors Christmas Eve.”
“Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their great support,” says Mryglod. “We have The Bargain Shop on board this year. Churches do White Gift Sunday and drop things off here. I'm always pretty amazed at the community support people give.”
“With these gifts, we recognize that not all of us have happy moments in our lives at Christmas. Mom or Dad may have lost their job, there have been house fires...There are all kinds of circumstances where a family might need help. These toys have even been used for birthday gifts.”
“It's about making a child happy in a visible way.”
