A Richmond resident's family tradition of donating toys to the annual Richmond RCMP toy drive will be a bit different this year.
For the past six years, long-time resident Lily Cheng had attended and volunteered at the Richmond RCMP toy drive for the Richmond Christmas Fund with her family. Cheng said her family loves supporting local charities, especially anything related to "children and holidays."
This year, Cheng, who works as a workplace health and safety employee at Amazon, is taking it to the next level by donating two pallets of toys through the Amazon donation program instead.
"When I first joined Amazon I found out about its donation program and thought we could really support this (toy drive) cause," said Cheng.
"Behind the scenes of this donation is a community coming together to help our own neighbours who may or may not have the financial means to celebrate the holiday season."
The toys being donated are in excellent condition but could not be shipped because of missing stickers for scanning purposes, she explained. Instead of "sending it to landfill," they are placed in a separate bin for donation.
While there are often not many toys from Amazon's return programs, Cheng made sure she and her team members "(accumulated) the toys throughout the year" for the Richmond Christmas Fund specifically.
"We want to make sure we match the needs of our local charities that we support and not have to waste these items," said Cheng.
The Amazon donation program has also helped other local charities including donating food to the Richmond Food Bank, she added.
"Christmas and holidays, in general, is a time where it brings families and communities together. We hope this can also encourage more local businesses to come out and help during this time as well," she said.
Cheng and Amazon employees will be donating the toy pallets at the event in Lansdowne Centre on Saturday, Nov. 19.
