No child in Chatham-Kent went without Christmas this year, thanks again to the Chatham Goodfellows.
"There was around 1,600 food hampers that went out, we took care of about 1,200 kids, we made $203,000 so far this year," said outgoing President Tim Haskell. "I was looking for somewhere around $200,00 that we would need, so I think we did pretty good."
Haskell added that is more than they raised in 2020.
"So basically the year before we made about $50,000 less than what we really needed. So that kind of hit the books a bit, and this year they stepped back up by doing all of our fundraising and we got things done."
This was the 67th campaign the Goodfellows, and Haskell said the volunteers really stepped up this year.
"We had to follow the COVID rules and stuff, so I'm thinking probably about half as many (volunteers) that we normally use. We had a pretty good volunteer base."
This was Haskell's final year as President after serving for five years.
"I really appreciate all the support we get from our community. I just want to thank all the volunteers out there, all the people who donated to us, and thanks for stepping up again this year. You took the worry right out of my head."
Looking back, Haskell was pretty worried about what would happen when the pandemic started.
"I was always worried about when the COVID hit, like are we going to be able to do this or continue to do this. It scares you. You just don't whether you're going to be able to do what you have to do to make the money."
Craig Williston is taking over as President of the Chatham Goodfellows.
