Pop up toy shop opens at the SS Sicamous for families in need to holiday shop – Penticton News
Photo: Holly Bates
The inside of the SS Sicamous is welcoming families this weekend after being completely transformed into a specialty shop, stocked from floor to ceiling with toys and decorated to look like something out of a holiday movie.
The “Shop of Wonders” is all thanks to the efforts of the Bethel Church Penticton and MyCityCares, which is an organization connected to the Parallel Church in Lethbridge.
“They run a shop of wonders in Lethbridge, and then throughout a few cities in Alberta. The executive director is from Penticton and she really wanted to see the Shop of Wonders come to Penticton,” lead organizer Holly Bates said.
The shop is designed for families that are under-resourced that need a little bit of support over the Christmas season, but can also experience a bit of holiday magic alongside that.
“We know that some families have to make a tough, tough decision between food on the table mortgage or gifts. And oftentimes they’ll pick gifts, but it means that it backs everything else up. And so we really wanted to bring support to these families, but also in a way that brings dignity and care to them,” Bates added.
Each family has a set shopping appointment throughout the weekend and a personal elf to help them out.
“We felt that the biggest joy at Christmas for parents is to shop for your kids. Hampers are wonderful, we know great organizations do that. But we wanted to offer something a little bit different and in a way to partner with parents so that the Gifts really are coming from them that they’re picking them off of our shelves, because they know their kids, and then they get that joy in that experience as well.”
All of the appointments have been taken for the weekend shopping experience, which kicked off on Friday night and runs all weekend.
The semi-private shopping experience has two families at a time.
“We have a team of wrappers and they’ll wrap the gift if the parents want or they’ll send them home with wrapping paper,” Bates added.
To stock the shelves with over 1000 toys, donations came from Bethel Church, Okanagan dance studio, Garden Works and many more places, including financial contributions from all over. Bates also thanked the three main sponsors, including Brett Harrington and Chad Mielke from ReMax, NuVista Chiropractic and Wellness and the Penticton Foundry.
Every child will get three stocking stuffers, two eleven gift gifts, which are medium gifts, and when one large Santa gift.
“We’re just we’re really honored to be able to do this and to be able to partner with community organizations…We just want to be able to provide a really great experience for everybody that comes through.”
Bates said that they are already planning to run it again next year.
Photo: Holly Bates