It was a message of love and generosity making news on this day in 1995, with the round up of gift and monetary donations for major charity groups in the ACT.
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Overall, the wishing trees and donation drives were successful with The Smith Family thrilled to share the news that they had passed their target of 10,000 toys. This meant that 400 ACT children would each receive three gifts. $250,000 was received through their Christmas cash appeal, under their $300,000 target, however, still a pleasing result.
The Salvation Army received some Christmas cheer with an unexpected donation of $3000 by the Canberra Labour Club group, while St Vincent de Paul was able to deliver more than 1500 Christmas hampers in Canberra.
Red Cross were reported to have come in below their target of $30,000.
One special person featured on the front page, was two year old Victoria McGuire, who was captured placing gifts under the wishing tree in Woden Plaza with her grandmother Ann Leslie.
Young Victoria would be receiving a very special gift of her own for Christmas that year. Her father, Captain David McGuire, would be making his much anticipated return from deployment in Cambodia. Captain McGuire had been away since July working under the United Nations with other members of the Australian Army to clear deadly land mines.
Ann had said that felt it was important to start early in teaching her grand-daughter that it is important to care for and help children at Christmas. Just as her father was helping children in Cambodia by keeping them safe, Victoria could help children here by gifting toys so those less fortunate could still enjoy the magic of the season.
Over 20 years later, the wishing tree appeal is still an incredibly successful and much loved tradition for many Canberra families. In 2018, the Kmart wishing tree appeal collected more than 200,000 gifts in store and online.
