Santa and his friends ‘escaped’ from Tillsonburg Saturday morning collecting 456 pounds of food and $105 in cash donations for the Helping Hand Food Bank.
“That’s a haul,” smiled organizer George Papadakos. “When you look at what we’ve created, what we’ve got here, it’s amazing. This isn’t a very warm day. The people of Tillsonburg, the community around Tillsonburg, are just truly amazing, so supportive.
“I’m really proud of the effort and we’ve got a huge donation for the Tillsonburg food bank, which at the end of the day, this is what it’s about.”
More than 37 runners/walkers, many with families, joined Saturday morning’s festive Santa’s Escape from Tillsonburg, a fun 5-km run or 2-km walk on the Trans Canada Trail east of town, near Zenda Line and New Road.
“A great turnout here for what is going to be, hopefully, an event that we do every year, historically, for a great cause – the Helping Hand Food Bank,” said Papadakos.
“Every little bit helps, even if it’s a can or two, or three or four, don’t ever underestimate the amount of help that you can do by coming out and then sharing this cause because we still have a lot more days until Christmas . So you can still do your part to help out.”