Royal Bank staff providing holiday cheer for Linden View residents

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By Trevor Busch
Taber Times

Staff at Taber’s Royal Bank branch are providing a helping hand to residents of Linden View this Christmas.

“Every year we usually run a silent auction at the bank, all the staff members contribute, and then last year we did have quite few local businesses contribute to our silent auction as well,” said Jordyn Mykytiw, a client advisor with the Royal Bank. “All the money raised we go buy individual gifts for the seniors at Linden View.”

Pandemic restrictions have put a damper on regular fundraising activities, so employees have decided to donate funds from the staff party account this year.

“So this year unfortunately we can’t run our silent auction with COVID, so we’re using our Christmas Party staff account and we decided to just continue to do that this year for them. So (we’ll be) shopping for 91 seniors.”
Basic essentials fit the bill again for residents, so staff will be doing a similar gift donation in for Christmas 2020.

“We’ll get them the gifts that they’re requiring. Pretty much everyday basic essentials is what they ask for every year, the one year we did blankets for every single senior, quilts. Last year we did calendars, body wash, socks, hairbrushes, and that’s what we’re going to do this year, because it sounds like that’s what they’re in need of again.”

The staff usually spend around $1,000 or more annually on the gifts they distribute to residents.

“It’s definitely costly but it’s for sure going to a good cause, especially because they need it,” said Mykytiw.
She reports the gifts plan to be delivered to Linden View on Dec. 21.

“So we’ll pack them all and take them down there by Dec. 21, but we’ll have everything packed and ready to go that Monday morning.”

Mykytiw talked about the origins of providing gifts to Linden View residents during the holiday season, and how the group initially decided to take on the cause.

“It was always a thought for us to give back to the community, people who needed it more than others. We used to do the women’s shelter (Safe Haven Women’s Shelter), so we wanted to change that up, and the idea of Linden View was thrown at us, and we were like, ‘That sounds wonderful. That’s such a good cause, and they’re the ones who need it the most in the community, especially this year with COVID, not being able to see families and things like that.’ So we definitely wanted to help out this year more than anything.”

Employees are dedicated to the endeavour, even under less than ideal circumstances.

“I think last year we ended up doing a gift and donating $500 towards some equipment,” said Mykytiw. “It’s a huge group thing, everybody puts in so much time and effort here at the bank, so it is definitely something I can do without all the staff members here.”

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