As Christmas approaches, rooms at Kelmscott charity Crossways are overflowing – not with decorations but with generosity.
Food items stacked every available shelf and toys filled corners and hallways, all destined for families in need during this festive season.
The donations were collected during the City of Armadale’s annual Carols by Candlelight.
The family-friendly celebration began with a Christmas parade through central Armadale, starting at Minnawarra Lake.
The parade featured colourful characters and performances by local community groups, before crowds gathered at Memorial Park, where Santa Claus greeted families and shared words of festive wisdom with children.
Armadale Mayor Ruth Butterfield said more than 4500 people attended the event with a record number of community groups participating in the parade.
“Six choirs took part including Armadale, Kelmscott and Clifton Hills PS, John Wollaston Community College, Roleystone Theatre Christmas Choir and the Caradine Choir.
Crossways coordinator Mel McGarry said donations from the candlelight event had been supporting the charity for four years and were used to create hampers.
“We have no space left in the whole of Crossways,” Miss McGarry said.
“Every space that’s available has some sort of food donation. This year has been amazing.”
While most donations come in the form of food and toys, any monetary contributions were used to fill the gaps.
“Generally, we don’t get money donations, but if we do, it goes towards buying extra things we need for the hampers,” Miss McGarry said.
“I think this year we needed more toys, so any money would go towards that.”
Over the past five years, Crossways has used the annual donations to provide hundreds of hampers to the local community with about 120 hampers distributed last year.
“This year, we’ve got more than 200 on our list which means we can accept more (requests) because we just have so much to give,” Miss McGarry said.
People experiencing hardship are invited to register for a hamper, which will be distributed on December 18 and 19.
Those registered will receive an email advising when their hamper is ready for collection.
Miss McGarry said the generosity extended across the entire community, with donations coming from schools, council facilities such as libraries and pools as well as individual residents.
“The community has really come together and put a lot of effort into donating,” she said.
“Thank you to everyone who’s donated to Crossways. You’re going to make a lot of people happy.
“I’m glad we can help in whatever way we can.”
