From barcodes to gift box deliveries, Mark Brandon is a ‘next-level’ Santa Claus Fund volunteer

Most people don’t think about barcodes at Christmas.

But for Mark Brandon, visions of the black-and-white striped patterns dance like sugar plums in his head for weeks on end.

Brandon has spent the last four years using a unique barcode inventory system that he developed for the Toronto Star’s Santa Claus Fund Christmas gift boxes. It might not sound like the most glamorous thing in the world, but the system he and his team started using back in 2018 helps get the much-anticipated presents out the door faster and into the hands of disadvantaged children.

“My customers are the delivering teams. And if I can get them the information better and faster and more accurately, they will come back to me with loyalty and then spend more of their time doing the deliveries and not worrying about the logistics,” explained Brandon.

Brandon’s involvement with the Star’s Santa Claus Fund goes back 30 years when he and his son, Christoph, used to drive across the city delivering gift boxes. His devotion to the charity was taken to a new level when his friend and fellow gift-box deliverer, Rick Hyland, asked him to become the manager of one of the fund’s Scarborough depots, a job Brandon took on with relish as it gave him a chance to put his organizational skills to the test.

“I drive my fellow volunteers nuts more often than sometimes because of my intense focus, which is like a horse with blinders on,” Brandon said.

Back in 2018, Brandon worked in corporate research and development for Shawcor, a company in the oil and gas pipeline industry. The company’s original CEO, Les Shaw, was a big supporter of the Star’s Santa Claus Fund. So when Brandon asked to use some company resources to develop a barcode system to better keep track of the gift boxes, the company happily volunteered some resources.

Using a bunch of file folder labels that Shawcor no longer needed, Brandon, along with some Shawcor administration staff, developed a barcode system that would include recipient families’ client numbers and location data.

Back at the depot, all Brandon had to do was scan the code and, using a special website with postal code data, the website’s software would spit out a route map showing where each box had its delivery point.

Suddenly, sorting of the delivery routes that used to take eight people a whole day to do could be done by two people in a morning.

“Every single depot is volunteer run and they’re all unique. What Mark has done is develop something that is so practical and helpful, and is something that could be scalable,” said Stacey Carcao, executive director of the Star Charities. “What it helps do is organize the boxes so that when volunteers are coming to pick up, the volunteers can take boxes that are in the same area very easily so that deliveries can happen without criss-crossing the district.

“To have a volunteer who is really thinking about how they can improve the volunteer experience and the experience for our recipients is next-level volunteerism,” she added.

Brandon said there’s nothing quite like seeing the wide eyes and huge smiles of children and their families — many of whom are new to Canada and may not receive any other gifts this time of year — when they see the Santa Claus Fund boxes.

“There are times where you know it has just made somebody’s day, week, month or year. That’s what keeps me in it,” he said.

But it’s not just the reaction on the faces of the kids that keeps Brandon doing what he does. It’s now become a family affair.

Brandon’s daughter-in-law Rosa, who is married to Christoph, was a recipient of the gift boxes when she was a newly arrived refugee from El Salvador 33 years ago.

Rosa, who arrived in Canada on Dec. 12, 1989, along with her parents and three siblings, came to this country with almost nothing. So getting the gift boxes when she was six years old was an experience that is seared into her memory, she said.

“I remember looking forward to getting them because they would always come with a little hat or little mitts, and a little candy and toys,” recalled Rosa, now a kindergarten teacher and mother of three. “It was funny because when I heard Mark was delivering them, it brought back those memories.”

It is possible that Brandon and his son delivered gift boxes to Rosa’s family all those years ago, given that their delivery area included the neighbourhood where her family lived at the time.

“Stranger things have happened,” said Brandon. “I’ve learned the world is a very small place.”

He adds that he is just one of hundreds of volunteers across the city all working to make Christmas a little bit brighter for the less fortunate.

“You have all these people who have a passion to make a bright spark somehow for families and kids at really a special time of the year.”

If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund or have a story to tell, please email santaclausfund@thestar.caKenyon Wallace is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @KenyonWallace or reach him via email: kwallace@thestar.ca

GOAL: $1.5 million

TO DATE: $1,169,566

How to donate

With your gift, you can help provide holiday gift boxes that inspire hope and joy to 50,000 underprivileged children.

Online: To donate by Visa, Mastercard or Amex, use our secure form at thestar.com/santaclausfund

By cheque: Mail to The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, One Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5E 1E6

By phone: Call 416-869-4847

To volunteer: scfvolunteer@thestar.ca

The Star does not authorize anyone to solicit on its behalf. Tax receipts will be issued.