Ways to help a Langley neighbour this month

The Langley Advance Times printed its November calendar this week, and buried between the quilting guilds and the dragon-boat club looking for a steersperson were a dozen organisations asking for hands. We took the list, went to each group’s own site, and threw out everything that turned out to be last year’s. What’s left is below, dates first, then the jobs you can start any week. Every one is in Langley City or the Township, and none of them is a personal fundraiser.

Dates to put in the calendar

Now until December 15: the Christmas Bureau is open. The Langley Christmas Bureau is run entirely by volunteers out of 20245 Industrial Avenue, and 2026’s goal is $240,000 to get hampers and toys to more than 2,000 children. Since November 2 the office is open Monday to Friday, 10 am to 3:30 pm (closed Remembrance Day; also open Saturday, December 5, 10 to 2). Aldergrove has a satellite at the Meals on Wheels office, 2900 272 Street, Mondays and Wednesdays until December 2, 10 to 2. Three ways in:

• Give a toy. New and unwrapped, dropped at Industrial Avenue. The Bureau asks you to skip stuffed animals (allergies) and says gift cards are the most useful thing for teenagers: write the amount on the card. Toy Depot Days, when parents come to choose, are December 10 to 15, so anything that arrives after that misses the year.
• Sponsor a family. You fill in the online form, choose a family size and City or Township, and shop for them yourself. The Bureau’s own cost guide runs from about $200 to $250 for a family of two up to $700 and up for seven or more.
• Volunteer. Four-hour shifts on the front desk, as a sponsor clerk or certificate processor, or as an “elf” in the toy depot helping parents choose. Every volunteer needs a criminal record check, and the application is on the volunteers page.

Thursday, November 12: the hospital’s volunteer interviews. Langley Memorial Hospital opened adult (19+) volunteer applications on October 15 and closes them when it hits capacity. Fraser Health has a group interview event on November 12 and a mandatory orientation on November 24, so if you want a hospital shift this winter, this is the week to apply. Roles include emergency-department host, friendly visitor, wayfinding, rehab support, pet therapy and the Auxiliary’s gift shop. You need a criminal record check and two references; the application and email address are on Fraser Health’s Langley page. The teen program is closed for now.

Tuesday, November 17: the hospice’s Walk to Remember. Langley Hospice Society’s candlelit walk for National Bereavement Day runs 3 to 7:30 pm at the Derek Doubleday Arboretum, 21559 Fraser Highway. It isn’t a volunteer job, but it’s the easiest way to stand with neighbours who’ve lost someone this year, and the society’s donation wish list is full of small, specific things (coffee-shop gift cards for its grief companions, $30 paint pens for the kids’ program).

Monday, November 23: become a Recycling Ambassador. The Township’s one-hour training workshop is 6:30 to 7:30 pm. It’s for people who live in a condo or townhouse with a shared waste room and want to be the person who fixes the recycling signage and answers the “does this go in the blue bin” questions. Apply on the Township’s page and check with your strata first.

Wednesday, November 25: a toy for a breakfast. The Christmas Wish Breakfast is 6:30 to 9:30 am at Newlands Golf and Country Club, 21025 48 Avenue. Bring a new, unwrapped toy and breakfast is on the house, with Santa and live entertainment; firefighters and RCMP volunteers collect the toys for the Bureau. No RSVP. Can’t make it that early? The City says you can leave a toy at the administration office on the second floor of City Hall, 20399 Douglas Crescent.

December, any day: wrap presents for a cause. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Langley runs the holiday gift-wrapping station at Willowbrook Shopping Centre through December, and every dollar goes to its Langley mentoring programs. The sign-up form asks whether you’ve wrapped before and whether you can run a till; the agency says it has fewer volunteer spots this year and may give experienced wrappers first call, so put your name in now.

Jobs you can start any week

Drive a meal. Langley Meals on Wheels needs drivers Monday to Friday, 11 am to 1:30 pm, on a permanent route or on call; you need a valid licence and insurance. If you’d rather not drive, packers and sealers work 9 to 10:30 am, kitchen helpers 9 to noon, and the Firehouse Café in Aldergrove takes helpers 8:30 to 11:30 or 11:30 to 2:30. It welcomes volunteers of all ages, and a police information check is required, but the society will get yours done at no cost if you don’t have one. Download the forms from lmow.ca/volunteers, fill them in without signing, and email them; they call you in to sign. Not a volunteer? $300 covers a month of meals for one person through the Month of Meals program.

Ring a kettle. Gateway of Hope’s Christmas Kettle Campaign is on now, per its home page, and what goes in the kettles here stays in Langley, where Gateway runs the community meal centre and the emergency shelter on the Bypass. Sign up for a shift through the Salvation Army’s kettle application, which asks when you’re free, mornings to evenings, weekdays or weekends. If you’d rather give things, Gateway’s list is specific: jackets, hoodies, socks, toques, gloves, towels, waterproof anything, and hygiene items like razors and deodorant. No toys, furniture or books; those go to the Salvation Army thrift store on the Bypass. Our Gateway of Hope page has the rest.

Fill a shelf. The Langley Food Bank’s own wish list starts with cash and grocery gift cards (they can buy what’s short that week), then pasta and sauce, cereal, snacks for school lunches, peanut butter and jam, canned meat and fish, canned fruit and vegetables, soup, rice, baby food, diapers and wipes. Food and cheques are taken at 10-20308 Logan Avenue (office Monday to Friday, 8 to 3:30) and at the Aldergrove depot at St. Dunstan’s Anglican Church, 3025 264 Street, on Tuesdays. The food bank also says it never asks for money at your door or by phone, so anyone who does isn’t them. More on our food bank and help page.

Walk a dog, or feed one. The Langley Animal Protection Society takes volunteers from 13 (cats only, with a parent at every shift) and 18 and up for dogs and cats. The deal is one two-hour shift on the same day every week for at least six months, after an orientation evening. Kennel assistants start early and lift 20-pound bags; dog walking has four levels; reception volunteers help run the Patti Dale Pet Food Bank, which takes unopened cat and dog food so families in a tight month can keep their animals. LAPS publishes the brands it uses and an online wish list on its items we need page.

Visit, phone or drive a senior. The Langley Senior Resources Society runs the Better at Home program for people 65 and over, and its volunteer jobs are the quiet, regular kind: driving someone to an appointment, picking up groceries, a weekly friendly visit or a telephone-buddy call. Apply online, then an interview, a criminal record check and references, then orientation. There are also greeter, kitchen and special-event shifts at the centre on 51B Avenue.

Write a card. The Langley Volunteer Bureau’s Cards for Seniors program has delivered more than 43,000 handmade cards since 2021 to care homes, Meals on Wheels clients, the Legion in Aldergrove, the hospice and the hospital. The winter card is the current occasion. Teachers and youth leaders can order free card kits; adults can help make the kits and ferry the cards. If you’d rather browse every volunteer posting in both Langleys, the Bureau’s registration page explains its Better Community app; you can look without an account and need one to sign up.

Sort a thrift store. Penny Pincher, the Langley Memorial Hospital Auxiliary’s store at 20560 Fraser Highway, wants receivers, sorters and cashiers for about four hours a week, with training provided. Everything it clears funds hospital equipment. The inquiry form is on the Auxiliary’s site.

Adopt a street. The Township’s Adopt-a-Program lets a family, a team or a strata take on litter pickup for a stretch of road, a park, a trail or a creek. Details and the waiver are on the Township’s volunteer page, along with recreation and salishan Place roles from age 12.

Two things we couldn’t confirm, so they’re not above: Operation Red Nose has no 2026 Langley listing on its site, and the hospice has no published date for its next volunteer training intake (it runs twice a year, 36 hours over 12 weeks, 19 and over), so email the society if that’s the one you want. For the long list of where to look year-round, see volunteering in Langley, and if you’ve got goods rather than time, where to donate used goods.