Project needs ongoing support

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Each year for the past three years, The Regina Metis Women (RMW) have been helping to make Christmas a lot more special for local Metis children from financially challenged families, and they're hoping to do the same again this year. But they can't do it alone.

The organization is planning its fourth annual Metis Children's Christmas Party for Sunday, Dec. 22, to be held at the Core Ritchie Neighborhood Centre, but is still trying to raise the funds necessary to cover the costs of the children on their list who attended last year's party, never mind any new children registering this year.

"The group doesn't have staff that can work on this, so we're always running around before Christmas trying to do this," explained Rhoda Fisher, who is co-ordinating the annual Christmas event.

The idea of holding the Christmas party originally grew out of the RMW's desire to develop comprehensive programming for Metis women and their families.

"And then we realized that within the Metis community, there was a lot of financially challenged families that, their needs weren't being met . . . so we wanted to set up a specific Christmas party for Metis children," Fisher explained.

The long-term goal is to be able to do enough fundraising that the party can be opened up to even more children, but organizers are far from that stage right now.

"It's kind of hard because you've got segments in our community that are very busy people. They volunteer for lots of things. And then it's very hard to get the target group to volunteer when they're living in poverty. So it's very hard to get those kind of fundraising, community-initiated things happening."

There was some question this year as to whether the Christmas party would be held because Fisher, who takes care of the fundraising for the party, is also working to raise funds for a Metis Women and Youth Conference the RMW is planning for the New Year. But that question was resolved by one phone call.

"What happened is, someone's little kid phoned about a week, two weeks ago, and left a message on our message manager over the weekend, asking if the Regina Metis Women were going to have a Kwistmas pawty this year," Fisher said.

The Christmas party is an important event, Fisher explained, because it helps parents deal with the stress that comes with facing the holiday season on a limited budget, when their children see the toys advertised everywhere, and can't understand why they can't get them.

"I think in the really true meaning of Christmas, it's the sharing, and it's the sharing with those in need. And I think we really want to drive that home."

Each child registered for the party will receive a toy, with the organizer's focusing on selecting only good, high quality toys to be handed out. And if for some reason the child can't make it to the party, that toy will be delivered to them the next day.

The organization has tried a number of ways to raise funds, from running a bannock booth, to selling hot dogs, to sending a group of people out to be extras during the shooting of a movie of the week. But what this event needs if it is to continue and to grow is a year round fundraising effort, and some ongoing partnerships with sponsors.

The RMW would like to hear from anyone interested in helping out with this year's party, or with future parties, whether as an ongoing corporate sponsor, or even by sponsoring one child to attend the annual party, donating items for the party, or donating your time. According to Fisher, by getting involved in this way, you can both give, and receive.

"We've had business people that sponsored our Christmas party, and sponsors come there, and we have them help Santa give the toy out. And that is for them the best pay- off, just seeing the face of the child getting the toy. Because they're just happy, they're just brimming."

For more information about how you can help support the annual Metis Children's Christmas Party, call the Regina Metis Womenoffice at 352-8400.