Wrapping and ribbons to raise money

Hands filled with bags, parking lots with nary a space left, and people skirting past each other to get in and out of stores – it’s the last weekend before Christmas.

People are filling Regina’s malls this weekend, trying to grab those last-minute gifts. And when the gifts are bought, there’s a group at the Southland Mall that wants to wrap them.

They’re set up in a vacant store space with boxes piled up one wall, and ribbons on the other. The group is raising money for Teddy Bears Anonymous and Thom Collegiate’s Grade 12 girls’ Europe trip, with teens and parents volunteering to help out.

Melissa Ackerman was in charge on Saturday. This is the second year she’s been a part of the fundraiser.

Ackerman said in the past couple days things have sped up.

“It’s definitely been a little slower up until earlier this week, but now we’re definitely starting to get quite a bit busier.”

When it comes to wrapping the gifts, Ackerman says there’s no special technique, and they don’t give the volunteers lessons. They just try to make the gift as nice as they can.

Ackerman said they have had a few awkwardly-shaped gifts.

“We’ve had a few Apple gifts that we’ve had to wrap that are kind of awkward but we just do our best, and make them look as pretty, and put some ribbon on, and some bows.”

She said when it comes to odd requests’ there was one person who brought in a GoPro camera, and wanted it wrapped in a huge box to disguise what it was.

The group will be wrapping gifts during the Southland Mall’s hours all the way to Christmas Eve.