A month from Christmas, Erica Jane Beckstead is already busy collecting donations and signing up volunteers for a special day on her calendar.
The afternoon of Dec. 25 is when she leads a Whalley Santa Cause initiative to hand out gift bags to those in need.
Beckstead and others have been playing Santa Claus in the neighbourhood over the past 12 years.
“I got clean in 2009 — I was a crack addict for, like, 10 years,” Beckstead explained. “The reason why I started doing it is because I wanted to give back. That’s one of the steps of the 12 steps, you know, giving back.”
Now a makeup artist in the film industry, Beckstead once worked aboard a train that took tourists through the Rocky Mountains.
“When I first started in 2011 I had my best friend Curtis with me and two ladies from Craigslist,” she recalled. “We had around 50 bags that I put together with all the toiletries I collected from all these fancy hotels while working on the train for two years.
“That’s how it started, and now we give out 500 bags. It’s grown like that over the past few years.”
More toiletries and clothing are needed again this year, at a time when the cost of living has soared.
“We need travel size toiletries, and also gently-used winter clothing, like sweaters and jackets, shoes, boots, gloves, scarves, socks and razors, things that people might already have in their homes. The toiletries have to be new though,” Beckstead underlined.
To donate goods or time to Whalley Santa Cause, contact Beckstead on 778-233-4344 or email whalleysantacause@hotmail.com.
Last Christmas Day she was joined by close to 30 volunteers.
“They’re people who want to give back and don’t want to feel like Christmas is just this commercialized event where everybody is buying stupid stuff,” Beckstead said.
“People want to give back, they really do, and people are so thankful, it’s such a great experience. We meet at one o’clock at Gateway Station, on the street behind the taxis, and we walk from there, around the neighbourhood, shelters and different places. At the end we always go to Surrey Urban Mission for a group photo.”
Photos of past efforts are posted to facebook.com/WhalleySantaCause.
“That motivates people when they see all the work we’ve done and all the people we’ve met on the street,” Beckstead insisted.
“Last year we had a Santa Claus with us for the first time, which was great, and wow, did that ever make a difference. Grown men were almost crying when they saw Santa, so amazing and magical, it really was.”
