VANCOUVER -- The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a curveball at critical fundraising efforts for many charities, including one in Metro Vancouver that helps hundreds of families in need at Christmastime. 

The Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau has seen the cancellation of key donation events that help fill the shelves each year, including the annual breakfast with Santa at the Pan Pacific Hotel, which the bureau’s executive director Chris Bayliss said brings in truckloads of toys.

“I’m comfortable we’ll get through 2020,” he said. “2021 scares the blank out of us.”

Bayliss said donations have also been down at events that have gone forward.

“Toy volume is down dramatically,” he said. “We’re down 50, 75 per cent at every event.”

The pandemic has also affected the number of people who are able to come and help out at the bureau.

“With social distancing and the general fear, we can’t use a lot of volunteers,” Bayliss said. “So our business model has to change, we have to use more paid staff.”

He added the bureau has invested in safety training and supplies, including masks and gloves, and is renovating its registration area to increase spacing for when families come to pick out gifts next month.

“Seventy per cent of our business has always been working poor families,” Bayliss said. “We’re getting far more phone calls. There’s a sense of urgency. It’s also a sense that they have to have Christmas. We have to do something positive, we have to end 2020 with something to smile about.”

There will be a drive-thru donation event benefiting the bureau on Thursday and Friday at the PNE grounds. People can book a time slot online or by phone. Those who bring a new, unwrapped toy or a cash donation will receive a coffee and mini donuts in return.

This year also marks the bureau’s 90th anniversary.

“We’ve survived pandemics and influenza and wars, and we kept doing our job, which is helping families at Christmastime,” Bayliss said.

He said they are grateful to those who are giving.

“Whatever they feel safe doing, we appreciate it,” Bayliss said.

Bayliss added gifts for teens are most in need. Money can also be donated through the bureau’s website.