Firefighters with the five departments in the Parksville Qualicum Beach region will be conducting the annual food and toy drive during the weekend of Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20. Donations are for the Salvation Army.
Paper bags for people to fill with food bank donations, are inside today's edition of The NEWS, provided by Quality Foods.
The five departments in District 69 are Coombs Hilliers Volunteer Fire Department, Dashwood Volunteer Fire Department, Errington Volunteer Fire Department, Parksville Volunteer Fire Department and Qualicum Beach Fire Department.
The first food drive was held in 1997 in Qualicum Beach and then joined by Parksville in 1998. This is the first year for Errington and for Coombs-Hilliers.
What follows is important information about what to do with those bags you fill for the food bank.
• Coombs Hilliers Volunteer Fire Department:
You can drop off the bags between
10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 19 at the Coombs-Hilliers Fire Hall #2 at 3241 Alberni Highway. Free hot chocolate and tours of the fire trucks.
As well, a fire engine will be going to some of the more populated communities and streets such as Whiskey Creek and Virginia Estates for pickup at the end of driveways between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday.
Items for the food drive may be dropped off at Fire Hall #2 from November 12 through November 19.
• Dashwood Volunteer Fire Department:
Both stations will be open on Saturday, November 19 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and donations will also be taken the week of November 21. Dashwood crews will tour more populated areas of the district and residents should leave their donation on front deck or driveway, weather permitting. Areas crews will cover are: Surfside/Flamingo, Center Road/Ganske/Cortez/Evanson/Texada, King/Cheddar/Edwin/Rogers, Baylis/Corcan/Doorman/Oakdowne, Boorman/Warder/Rembar, Koskimo/Wildflower/Settler, Meadowood Way/Galvin Place/Ashling, Little Qualicum River Village.
The Dashwood station is located at 230 Hobbs Road and the Meadowood Fire Hall is located at 1800 Galvin Place.
• Errington Volunteer Fire Deaprtment:
Items may be dropped off at Station #1 at 960 Errington Road on both Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 pm.
• Parksville Volunteer Fire Department:
Parksville firefighters will collect food and toys, door-to-door throughout Parksville and the areas served by the Parksville Fire Protection Area on Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20 from
9 a.m. to 4 pm. PVFD members try to get to every household in the Parksville Fire Protection Area and if a home is missed, residents are asked to bring non-perishable food items and/or new, unwrapped toys to the Parksville Fire Hall at 160 Jensen Avenue West during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Parksville Fire Protection Area includes San Pareil, Morningstar, Columbia Beach, French Creek, Fourneau Road and the Forever Green Estates as well as the City of Parksville.
• Qualicum Beach Volunteer Fire Department:
Qualicum Beach Fire Department will have trucks circulating through neighbourhoods on Saturday November 19, complete with Christmas carols, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. collecting donations of non-perishable foods. Donations should be left at the end of the driveway, at the front door visible from the road or listen for the siren and Christmas carols and signal the firefighters as they go by. Items may also be dropped off at Qualicum Foods, and the B.C. Government Liquor Store on Primrose.
Firefighters will try to get to all homes on Saturday, but if missed, Qualicum residents may drop off donations on Sunday, November 20 at the fire hall between 9.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. and there is a bin in the lobby at town hall.
Residents of the Chartwell area will have door-to-door pick up of their donations by members of Arrowsmith Search and Rescue on Saturday, November 19 only.
The following items, in no particular order, are in demand at the food bank, and the Salvation Army also said cash donations can buy as much as two-three times the dollar value at some stores: Chunky soups, canned soup (mushroom is No. 1), canned meat, peanut butter, canned vegetables, pancake mix, juices of all types, canned fish, pasta sauce, canned fruit, pancake syrup, almond
milk. — NEWS Staff