The Cougars junior A hockey team united with three other Burlington organizations, with the common goal of granting local children an awesome Christmas. Sharing this vision with the Cougars are Burlington Professional Firefighters, Salvation Army and Toyz R Us.
At this time of year, the Cougars usually hold charity games but these couldn’t take place due to the pandemic. The hockey players were at a loss to give back to the community in their usual ways, such as ‘ Pink in the Rink’ and the Santa Clause Parade.
So Toys R Us joined in with the new idea of holding a Toy Drive outside their Appleby Line store, generously donating the lion’s share of toys to help make the drive a huge success.
The toy collection began early in November because the pandemic put more families than ever in need of help.
Kirk from Toys R US and Dan Vanderlelie of the Burlington Firefighters Association, along with Laura at the Salvation Army and Tiffany Wirth, the Cougars’ Event Coordinator made the first annual toy drive happen, beginning a new tradition!
In these crazy times,” said Tiffany, “the community coming together to help one another is most important. Burlington is an amazing city and with the help of our awesome community we were able to collect a fantastic amount of toys for local kids.
After the Burlington Cougars help take care of those in need during these hard times, these awe-inspiring young men hope to bring the love of hockey back to Burlington.
Submitted by Leslie Styles // Photos by David Joubarne
