It’s the most wonderful time of the year and the owners of the Merrittville Speedway are once again organizing their annual Christmas toy giveaway.
But this year they’re doing things a little differently by hitting up local schools to hand out the gifts to children.
On Friday morning, 725 students at the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School excitedly lined up to receive their Christmas present.
“We do it because you see the smiles on their faces when they come in,” Merrittville Speedway owner, Don Spiece, tells ThoroldToday. “I liked doing it at the Speedway but I think we’re doing it better by doing it at schools.”
The Spieces plan to hit up five schools this Christmas season, to hand out a total of 3000 presents.
“My mother-in-law and my father-in-law did four weeks of gift wrapping this year,” says Spiece. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that many next year.”
While they’ve already got four schools in Welland and Thorold locked in, the Spieces are looking for a fifth school through a contest on 99.7FM next week.
Organizing the toy giveaways takes a lot of work.
“We try to make it the same for each kid in each class,” explains Don’s wife Lorraine. “So every girl will get the same gift and every boy will get the same gift. I just go by the numbers of what the school gives me. Then I mark the boxes and the bags. I’m good at that. I enjoy it.”
The principal of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School, Chris Zanuttini, tells ThoroldToday that the toy giveaway has officially kicked off the month-long Christmas celebrations at the school.
“The Christmas trees are being put up, some of our kids are helping decorating,” he says. “The kids have been looking forward to it, it’s exciting.”
That certainly was apparent on Friday morning as the children had big smiles on their faces when receiving their gift.
“You know what the bottom line is?” says Don Spiece. “We make a little bit of a difference. Some of these kids have nothing. That’s the best impact to me. I love giving and this is probably the best time to do it.”
