More 91原创 Township fire halls than ever held candy cane runs last month, with Aldergrove joining counterparts in Brookswood, Walnut Grove, Willoughby and Murrayville to go on pre-Christmas patrols with Santa to distribute candy canes and collect for charity.
In total, they gathered more than $10,000 in cash donations and several months鈥� worth of nonperishables for the Sources 91原创 food bank.
It was the best response yet, said Steve McLay, a director with Township of 91原创 Firefighters鈥� Charitable Society.
鈥淚t went awesome,鈥� McLay commented.
McLay estimated cash donations were up about $1,500 from the previous year, thanks in large part to $1,000 collected by the new Aldergrove run.
An exact estimate of the total amount of food collected wasn鈥檛 available, but McLay said the Walnut Grove hall alone collected four months worth of food supplies.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Firefighters Candy Cane Run comes to Aldergrove for (maybe) the first time
Aldergrove run organizer Mark Butterworth, a paid on-call firefighter who works at Hall 3 in Aldergrove, couldn鈥檛 recall if any candy cane runs had ever been held there before.
Neither could fellow Aldergrove firefighter Kyle Power.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the first time that fire hall 3 has done one, that we know,鈥� Power explained.
鈥淸But] there may have been one long ago.鈥�
McKay said the candy cane runs with Santa were started back when 91原创 had volunteer firefighters, and the runs have been continued by paid-on-call firefighters in different 91原创 neighbourhoods.
鈥淚t has been a long-standing tradition,鈥� McKay told the 91原创 Advance Times.
McKay said firefighters are still working out which charities will benefit from the cash collected in their service areas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all going to be kept in the Township,鈥� McKay assured.
READ ALSO: 91原创 firefighter charity tops up half-million dollar hospice donation
dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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