By Sheldon Spackman

With the Christmas season quickly approaching, the Women’s Outreach Centre in Red Deer is encouraging Central Albertans to help out those less fortunate in our community.

The annual Adopt A Family program is underway and Fund Development Officer Darcy Ouellet says the demand for help this year is already close to 10 percent higher than last year at this time. He says the number of families that have completed applications for assistance so far is 53 and they include 122 children. As for sponsorship, there are 74 sponsors so far this season, down about 12 percent from 2015. Ouellet says “Our intention is to help as many families as we can.”

Ouellet speculates it’s the current economic conditions that are leading to the increase in demand for their services, adding the families that get help are given gift cards for food and presents for the kids. The application deadline for assistance through the program is December 15th, while those wishing to sponsor a family can do so right up until December 24th. Ouellet says 222 families received help through the Adopt A Family program in 2015 and that included 465 children.

You can contact the Women’s Outreach Centre at 403-347-2480 if you’d like to apply for assistance or sponsor a family. Or you can find out more by visiting their website by clicking here:

http://www.womensoutreach.ca/services/adopt-a-family/