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980 CJME’s Santas Anonymous has been helping families for 50 years, but a special gift unveiled at Saturday’s Wrap Day aims to support the program’s ever-growing demand while eventually reducing its need.
Gordon Rawlinson, owner of Rawlco Radio, came to Regina in 1969 and became manager of CJME. He saw the need for a program that supported children through the Christmas season and reached out to the Salvation Army to create Santas Anonymous that year. The program has continued ever since, providing hundreds of thousands of toys to tens of thousands of children.
On Saturday, Rawlinson donated $500,000 over five years to the Salvation Army. Half of that money will go to support all expenses around Santas Anonymous, including purchasing toys. The rest will be used for a pilot project called Pathway of Hope.
Val Wiks with the Salvation Army said they non-profit is grateful for the donation, adding the funds will allow them to work one-on-one with families in need.
“This way, we’ll walk with them — it’s not just in the door, have an appointment, and a ‘Thanks, see you later,’ ” Wiks explained. “Some of the families we’ll probably work with for over a year.”
The Pathway of Hope program will target the repeat clients who tend to often be in crisis. The Salvation Army describes four general stages on the road from crisis to self-sufficiency:
- Crisis
- Vulnerability
- Increasing stability
- Sufficiency helping them towards stability and eventually self-sufficiency
The Salvation Army says that people often require aid in the crisis stage, needing help with basic needs like food and shelter. That help gets them to the second stage, vulnerability. But the cycle repeats itself over and over. Aside from the toll on the people in need, it’s costly to organizations providing support.
To get to the third stage of increasing stability, the Pathway of Hope works with individuals and families to develop a customized plan to tackle whatever issues and barriers they face to achieve the fourth stage, sufficiency. That’s when people can meet basic needs on their own, and have the means to weather a temporary crisis.
Rawlinson says it’s that commitment to making Regina a better place that has always driven Santas Anonymous.
“Santas Anonymous is a piece of CJME history,” he said. “We have a long-standing special relationship with the Salvation Army to help provide children with toys, but more importantly joy, over the Christmas season. Supporting the Pathway of Hope program will create an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and a better future for children in Regina.”
Gordon Rawlinson is the owner and CEO of Rawlco Radio, which operates seven radio stations in Saskatchewan and Alberta, including 980 CJME, Jack 94.5 and Z99.