Frosty the Christmas Horse campaign collects food, $5K for COPE

A sold-out 50/50 draw and carloads of food donations at The Plaice Bar and Grill on Saturday raised $5,000 for Community Outreach Program Erie (COPE) and helped stock the shelves at Fort Erie’s main food bank.

The fourth annual Frosty the Christmas Horse food drive on Saturday brought families to The Plaice on Garrison Road to meet the gentle thoroughbred horse and a baby goat named Rosie while dropping off food and cash for COPE.

Organized by Fort Erie resident Gary Hass and Team Frosty with support from the 337 Fort Erie Air Cadets, owners of The Plaice, Royal Bank volunteers and local children’s author Samantha Meli, the event aimed to keep pace with growing local demand for emergency food support.

During a brief ceremony outside the Garrison Road restaurant, MPP Wayne Gates presented provincial certificates to Lionel and Cynthia Pereira, owners of The Plaice, and to Meli for their work backing Frosty and COPE.

“I can tell you that the need today is probably greater than ever, and it takes leaders like yourself to put on an event like this so the kids for the next few weeks will be able to enjoy a meal or some food,” said Gates.

Cars pulled into The Plaice’s parking lot to donate bags of non-perishables, and many came out to see Frosty and Rosie.

“Frosty is the draw for the children, and it’s an entertaining thing that brings them to realizing that community support is there,” said Hass. “We do it for COPE because COPE is a group that goes out of their way to make sure that nobody’s hungry in this town.”

Hass told Fort Erie Radio that even people with stable jobs can find themselves relying on COPE after a sudden layoff, illness or other crisis.

This year’s event also leaned on a growing literacy project built around Frosty. Local author and illustrator Samantha Meli, who runs Have Imagination Studios, set up a table at the edge of the lot with her Frosty the Christmas Horse colouring storybook and original Christmas book, donating part of her sales to COPE.

“Gary contacted me because of the books, because he wanted to get a colouring book done,” said Meli. “He thought I was good for the job, so I helped out.”

More than 7,000 Frosty colouring books have gone out to children this year, with 10,000 printed by the Fort Erie Race Track to support the campaign. Hass credited the race track’s management for backing the project from its early days.

“All of this is because the people of Fort Erie come out to serve us at every venue,” said Hass.

Volunteers from the 337 Fort Erie Air Cadets were there helping donors take non-perishables from their cars and directing traffic in the parking lot.

Hass also singled out Lionel and Cynthia Pereira of The Plaice for giving the event a permanent home and backing it year-round through collection barrels and other support.

“All the stuff you do for this community, the number of people that have been fed by the venue that we do here is a high number only because of your support,” said Hass.

Frosty the Christmas Horse started as a small effort by friends who met for dinner at The Plaice and wanted to respond to local need, and has grown into a signature December event that includes Team Frosty’s milk campaign for COPE and barrels at businesses across town.

Team Frosty has already helped deliver more than $30,000 worth of food and roughly 2,000 containers of shelf-stable milk to the food bank.

While Frosty and Rosie have now headed back to the barn, residents who could not attend can still support the campaign by dropping off food or cash directly to COPE’s Dufferin Street location during regular hours, or by checking with local businesses that continue to host collection barrels through the rest of December.

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