What the Santa Claus Fund delivered: a warm glow of happiness and a cool orange hat

It’s been more than 10 years since Alice Narushevich opened the box of gifts delivered by a smiling stranger to her family’s Toronto home.

But Narushevich remembers each of the items tucked inside her Santa Claus Fund box.

A pair of socks. A treat. Pencils and a package of brightly coloured pencil crayons. A notebook. An orange and black backpack. And her favourite item: an orange toque that she has kept as a childhood memory.

“For some reason, I just loved that hat,” says Narushevich, who thinks she was about eight years old when her family received their first pair of Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund boxes.

“I wore it for a long time; I thought it was so cool. It was my favourite, favourite hat.”

Along with the gifts, Narushevich, now 19, also remembers the warm glow of happiness she and her brother felt after receiving their Santa Claus Fund boxes. Both were welcome additions to tuck under their family’s small Christmas tree.

Narushevich and her brother lived with their mother in the Villaways neighbourhood in North York. The Toronto Community Housing complex, near Leslie Street and Sheppard Avenue East, was torn down a few years ago as part of the city’s Leslie Nymark revitalization project and replaced with a new mixed-income neighbourhood.

Families were relocated, a term used by officials when describing the revitalization project. Narushevich said leaving the Villaways to make way for gentrification meant she lost her childhood home.

“It’s hard to think about my old house,” she said. “It’s not really there anymore, just condos in its place.”

Narushevich said her mother — a single mom — worked hard to give her kids a good Christmas. They would decorate their living room and most years go to Ikea for a last-minute real Christmas tree.

“She always tried her best to make us happy. She always tried to do something special or get us something nice, whatever she could manage at the time.”

That first year her family received Santa Claus Fund boxes Narushevich remembers watching her mom open the front door to receive the gifts.

“She said, ‘Oh guys, look, more gifts,’” Narushevich recalled, the memory making her cry. “She had a big smile on her face. She seemed really happy.”

Narushevich can’t remember how many yearsher family got Santa Claus Fund boxes. She thinks they arrived in time for two or three Christmases.

But each time the boxes made her mom smile. And each time they gave Narushevich and her brother a few extra — and sometimes much needed — gifts.

“I remember the first year we got school supplies I was running low … I remember being so happy for the box of new crayons.”

The orange and black backpack, too, was welcome and well-used.

“I think it had the Toronto city logo on it. When I saw other kids in our neighbourhood with the same backpack I thought: ‘That’s so cool. They have the same backpack as me.’”

But Narushevich’s favourite item from her first Santa Claus Fund box will always be the orange toque.

“It’s just this plain hat — it doesn’t have any pompoms or anything — but it does have this white design on its front,” she said. “At the time, all my friends were guys and they were into skating. I thought this skater-looking hat was so cool. I wore it all the time.”

Narushevich has no plans to part with her favourite orange hat. She keeps it with other items from her childhood, the things that remind her of good feelings and good memories.

Now that she is older, Narushevich wants to volunteer with the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund. She emailed the charity earlier this month, writing that she “would like to be a part of creating great memories for other children in the same way the Santa Claus Fund created for me many years ago.”

As an undergraduate student at the University of Torontowith a part-time job, Narushevich doesn’t have a lot of spare time.

But in between work, writing essays and studying for her exams, Narushevich wants to help with the charity. She knows how much Santa Claus Fund boxes mean to families.

“They bring a lot of happiness to the kids and the parents,” she said. “They make the kids feel surprised and special, and they help the parents put more gifts under the tree.”

Megan Ogilvie is a Toronto-based health reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @megan_ogilvie

GOAL: $1.5 million

TO DATE: $407,511

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, scan this QR code or 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

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

To volunteer: scfvolunteer@thestar.ca