Tantramar Community Association treasurer John Higham is concerned that recent growth in the group’s Christmas Cheer and Community Assistance programs could mean difficulties in 2025.
“We’re quite a bit behind where we were last year in terms of the amount of money that was coming in,” says Higham.
The Christmas Cheer program provides grocery vouchers and children’s gifts for Sackville families each December, and the Community Assistance program provides aid throughout the year to families who may need help covering a high power bill or rent payment. In 2024, the cost to provide that help more than doubled, and the cost to deliver Christmas Cheer jumped 20%.
Those increases, coupled with further expected increases this year, mean the demand for donations is high.
“Our practices are that Christmas Cheer takes precedence,” says Higham, “and whatever we have left over is what we’ll be able to deal with. So that’s where we are at this point… We’ll do what we can do, but that’s all we’ll do.”
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The Community Assistance program evolved as an extension of Christmas Cheer. A Tantramar resident can request emergency assistance with bills, rent or other expenses, and the Community Association will pay the bill on their behalf, up to a certain amount every year.
“It’s usually power, because power is so expensive,” says Higham. “Sometimes it’s, ‘I just got a job, I have a car, but I can’t get gas to go back and forth.’” There’s also parents in need of winter coats for their kids, and people in need of help with grocery bills.
Part of the reason that requests for community assistance more than doubled in 2024 is that the Community Association had expanded its boundaries to include all residents of the new amalgamated municipality of Tantramar. But that doesn’t explain the full increase, because the Sackville Christmas Cheer program did not expand with amalgamation, and still saw a 20% jump in costs in 2024.
Higham expects costs to climb again this year, and he’s not sure if donations will meet the demand.
“It’s hard to judge, because it could be in the mailboxes waiting for the strike to finish, or it could be that people just haven’t thought about it yet,” says Higham.
Higham says the Community Association collects donations in a drop box at the Royal Bank, by mail, and online through CanadaHelps.org under their legal name, the Sackville Community Fund Association. You can also find the group online at christmascheersackville.ca.
