If this was horse-racing, it'd be a photo finish.
The Burnaby Christmas Bureau reached its campaign goal just in time for the big day, with a bit left over to help build back up its shrunken reserves.
"It's just fantastic, to reach that goal - and then to exceed it, it's just great," said Stephen D'Souza, executive director with the bureau.
The bureau provides toys and food for low-income families at Christmas time, through donations of toys, money and through direct sponsorship of families by donors.
In all, the bureau set a goal of $190,000 for its financial needs - a goal that was all the more critical this year, because the increase in clients and the decrease in donations had forced the bureau to dip into reserves last year to cover shortfalls.
Over the course of a decade, the organization had built up a reserve of about $100,000 - by the end of last year's campaign, they had needed to use up nearly $50,000 of it.
Though the final numbers for the 2011 campaign are still being tallied, D'Souza said on Wednesday that the total was at $192,009 - and a few cents - with about 1,450 families, or 5,000 individuals, helped this season.
"Anything left over, it goes back into the reserve," he said.
Though it all came together in the end, there was plenty of uncertainty over whether the goal would be met: with less than a week left in the campaign, the bureau was still short $60,000, and D'Souza made an urgent appeal to the community.
The NOW's story about that shortfall prompted additional coverage by local television media, helping to spread the word even further.
"That really got things moving. It reminded people that we were here," he said. "A lot of people were saying 'I saw this in the NOW.'"
The range of donors was incredible, said D'Souza.
For example, they had several families that had been former clients who, now that they were able to help out, decided to make a donation to the bureau.
Another donor came in with a "significant contribution" in honour of her husband, who had passed away but was previously very involved in the Burnaby community.
Major contributions came from a number of places, including the Burnaby North Secondary School's Christmas Cheer Committee, which raised $10,000, and the Metropolis at Metrotown Santa photo program, which offers Santa photos by donation to the bureau.
As well, D'Souza said they had hundreds of people make donations of small amounts that helped keep the total growing - as well as people coming back in to make additional donations after hearing about the shortfall.
"People just dug a little deeper and came back with another donation for us. It was amazing," he said.
On top of that, volunteers came out en masse to help, he says.
"This year, the number of volunteers was amazing," he said. "There were so many more people than we even had spaces. It seemed like everyone wanted to volunteer."
"When people give their time and talent, you can't put a price on that," he said.
The bureau is already looking ahead to the 2012 campaign and beyond - in 2013, they're hoping to finally be in a permanent location that will accommodate their offices, toy room and storage facilities in one spot.
"We have a permanent city amenity space, we're hoping that will be ready for 2013," he said.
As part of the city's community benefit density bonus program, developers can create additional density in exchange for space for community purposes.
In this case, a development going in at Lougheed Highway and Rosser Avenue will include a two-storey space with an entrance at street level.
The bureau, which also runs Meals on Wheels and other community programs, will be one of several groups occupying that space.
"That will really help make us more accessible - we really envision it as a space that will create an identity in the area as a place for people to come," he said.
For next year, they'll still need a temporary location for their toy room - the last two years, they've been housed in spaces in Metropolis at Metrotown.
D'Souza says the earlier they know where that location will be, the better.
In the meantime, they've struck up a partnership with PODS, a storage company, that has allowed them to pack up their toy room and supplies for the year much more easily than in the past, when they had to move everything to a second location and unload it all again.
"It's so much better," said D'Souza.
In the coming weeks, bureau staff will be finalizing this year's numbers to determine exactly how many clients were helped and how much was donated.
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