News

Children across Durham Region have yet to take the wrappers off their last batch of Halloween candy, but thoughts are already turning toward the Christmas season for less fortunate youth in our communities.

DURHAM — A local charity is hoping to help even more children this Christmas — which means they need even more supporters.

DURHAM — It’s not easy for women fleeing domestic violence to live at a shelter — but it’s especially hard to be there at Christmas with their children.

“They are so stressed about how they’re going to provide Christmas,” says Wendy Leeder, co-executive director at YWCA Durham, which operates Y’S WISH shelter in Oshawa.

AJAX — Last Christmas, Ajax resident Mary Pomeroy-Brown was on a frantic search for the perfect gift for a little girl she had never met.

Ms. Pomeroy-Brown was looking for iCarly gear for a child whose Christmas wish list she had adopted through the Dreams and Wishes organization. Through the Santa’s Dreams programs, volunteers like Ms. Pomeroy-Brown purchase Christmas presents for children in Durham shelters including Herizon House, Y’s Wish and Denise House.

DURHAM — Every kid should get a chance to celebrate birthdays and Christmases says a group of Ajax women, and they’ve established an organization to help some of the Region’s neediest kids do just that.