Tradition of giving

It started off as a fledgling fundraiser for those in need.

IOC's Twelve Days of Christmas raised $10,000 in its first year in 2006, and the donations skyrocketed to just under $35,000 last year, explains Tyfun Eldem, IOC's vice president of operations and engineering.

This year $28,000 was raised and he was there to present the cheque to the Labrador West Ministerial Association on Dec. 22.

In the fundraiser, IOC matched every dollar that an employee gave.

The concentrator group at IOC also collected recyclables all year round which they turned into $2,100 that they donated to the campaign, says Jacqui Winter, IOC communications and external relations adviser.

One employee, Terry Fagan, also made a $1,000 donation.

What is more, explains Winter, Primary Ore, the group which won the Stuff the Bus competition raising 2,916 pounds of food, received $500 from IOC which they also donated to the Labrador West Ministerial Association.

"This kind of donation will help us go through the year," says Father Jarek Pachocki from the ministerial association.

He goes on to say that a big portion of the funds will go towards Christmas hampers, 150 of which have already been delivered by the Labrador West Food Bank to addresses of people in need.

He adds that the donation will also go those asking for help from the food bank, to families who might be going through tough times, and for travel in the case of emergencies that people encounter such as cancer treatments or death of loved ones.

Father Jarek believes that the donation is a great way to kick off the 50th Christmas the community will celebrate with IOC, which has fostered a great relationship over the years.

"Being able to give to the less fortunate in the community gives us tremendous satisfaction and fulfillment seeing that the money and the food we're collecting is going towards the less fortunate," explains Eldem.

"This I a true testament of the giving spirit our employees carry," he adds. "I'm extremely proud of our employees for what they've done."

Although this year's donation is slightly lower than last year's, he still believes that it's a tremendous effort considering the world economic crisis that they've gone through.