Christmas may be over, however local charitable causes continue to benefit from various holiday campaigns.
Valente Development Corporation (VDC) held their second annual Holiday Mission.
Darcie Valente with VDC says they bring their gladiator trucks to each of their development sites across Essex County.
"What we do is we ask our residents and our trade partners to fill our trucks with toys and food so that we can delivery them to local missions. And we also ask for donations from some of our trades and this year was again another huge success. We raised $26,000 total. $20,000 of that was donated from Peter Valente at Valente Development Corporation."
Sam Zoura, Jason Brown, Matt Brosnan with Linda and Staff from Kingsville Community Food Bank after delivering a truck load of food and $4500 worth of Gift Cards to FreshCo. Dec. 2023 (Photo supplied)
Valente says local food banks benefited from this years campaign.
"So we would show up in our gladiator trucks, we would unload them with the food and the toys. We were also able to donate $4,500 in [food] gift cards to the following food banks: St. Andrews Anglican Church Food Bank in LaSalle, Essex Area Food Bank, Lakeshore-Tecumseh Community Support Centre Food Bank and the Kingsville Community Food Bank."
She says in addition VDC was also able to give $2,000 in Devonshire Mall gift cards to Sparky's Toy Drive - Tecumseh Fire Service and LaSalle Fire Service and Santa's Cause for Kids - Essex Fire Department.
Valente says it's great to see the residents and staff at their developments come together for a great cause.
"They obviously entrust us with one of the most important decisions they will ever make is their home and where they will live, and so they've also entrusted us in this mission and they love helping us with it. So it's great, we get to work together with the residents of our communities."
Our Valente Mission Gladiator dropping off food and $4500 worth of FreshCo Gift Cards at St. Andrews Anglican Church Food Bank - LaSalle. Dec. 2023 (Photo supplied)
In total $25,820 in gift cards from FreshCo, Foodland, Williams Food Equipment, and Devonshire Mall were donated to local causes.