12th annual Community Christmas Project is coming to town

The 12th annual Community Christmas Project (CCP) is set to take place later this year as preparations have already begun.

The CCP is the biggest Christmas project in the west of Pretoria. It was, unfortunately, cancelled last year due to strict Covid-19 regulations.

According to Best Care ambulance services Xander Loubser, financial support also played a huge role as everyone struggled to survive.

“As an ambulance service, we considered it negligent to host a Christmas project in the pandemic with limited knowledge about the virus at that time,” he said.

Earlier this year, Best Care launched a mobile vaccination unit and those funds that were generated from the unit, will be used to fund the project.

“A total of R200 000 will be donated to the project, but we are still R60 000 short,” said Loubser.

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Beloved Father Christmas, Robbie Salmon passed away earlier this year due to Covid-19.

Loubser and the team plan to erect a structure in memory of him, which will be made up with lights that will be on the back of the truck.

Packages will be prepared a week before the kick-off of the five-day project spanning over five areas.

“Packages will be sealed and once again consist of a children’s Bible, cookies, coffee, sweets, chips and lollipops,” he said.

As human interaction will be limited, the “wow” factor will be extra special to make it a feast for the eyes.

The exact routes and dates of when the project will get underway is yet to be announced.

“We want to kick off the project either at the end of November or early in December when the Christmas festivities start. We will be planning around the alert levels around Covid-19.

“Anyone who would like to get involved in this initiative, can visit our website www.ccproject.co.za. We need all the help we can get as there is a lot of planning going into a huge project like this one,” said Loubser.

CCP was established to have an official platform to run the annual project through.

Over the years, it was done through involving businesses, individuals and non-profit organisations.

It started as a CPF initiative in the Hercules area.

The project is known for the famous cry of multiple emergency vehicle sirens and a fleet of decorated vehicles and members giving out hand-packed sweet packets or gifts to the less privileged and neglected elderly community members.

In 2017 the project ran over five days and gave 18 300 community members a Christmas smile.

A year later, the project hit a new record of 20 000 beneficiaries from which 5 000 were elderly and disabled beneficiaries. The CCP committee also donated R10 000 to a long standing project in Danville as part of their 2018 outreach.

In 2019, the project once again exceeded the previous years’ record by successfully handing out 25 903 packets to children, the elderly and pet dogs.

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