聽 聽 聽Two Carlyle businesses have teamed up to create Christmas cheer for area kids- from infancy to age 16.
聽聽聽聽 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.
聽聽聽聽 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, 鈥渃arried on.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淲e kept on doing it in the Carlyle store,鈥� says Mryglod. 鈥� We've been doing it since 1995. We liked the community approach and so did our customers. It works out well.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚n 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淭his 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 Betty Jack of The Bargain Shop agrees. 鈥淭his 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淲e 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚t 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚f we haven't been in that situation ourselves, we may know someone who hasn't been as lucky as we are.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 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, 鈥渞ight up until we close the doors Christmas Eve.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淥nce again, I'd like to thank everyone for their great support,鈥� says Mryglod. 鈥淲e 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淲ith 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.鈥�
聽聽聽聽 鈥淚t's about making a child happy in a visible way.鈥�
