IQALUIT - Children in Iqaluit will have a merrier Christmas this year thanks to donations Iqalummiut have made to the NorthMart's Angel Tree campaign, according to grocery manager David Seamone.

"We started it 10 years ago and it's been going ever since," Seamone said. "So this is the 11th Christmas."

The Angel Tree contains the ages and genders of needy Iqaluit children that customers and businesses can purchase presents for. The gifts are then given to staff at Nunavut Income Support to distribute to the kids.

This year, Department of Education staff are also helping out to wrap and distribute gifts.

"They've been taking up the gifts and their elves are doing the wrapping and are doing special notations on the gifts," Seamone said.

Seamone said the number of children on the tree has increased over the last 10 years.

"It started off with 142 kids and now it's up to 363," he said.

Staff at NCC Development Limited collected donations from staff members, which was matched by the company, said Clarence Synard, superintendent and director of health and safety.

With the company's match, a total of $4,900 was donated to the campaign.

"Two weeks ago I started going around with a Santa hat looking for donations," Synard said. "We raised $2,450 on site."

The donation is the equivalent of about 17 cartloads of presents, he said.

Last year, staff raised $1,100, which was also matched by the company. They then decided to participate every year.

Synard said staff at NCC were quick to donate.

"We're all making good money; the North has been good to us," Synard said. He added the company's goal for next year is to raise $10,000.

Seamone said the tree still contained angels for a few children, but had no doubt presents would be purchased for them by the end of last week.

"We've got a strong week to go. We still have some angels on our tree," he said. "We're going to get on the intercom and do some commenting on it and hopefully people reach in their pockets. Iqaluit is very good for it."

Seamone said the Iqaluit branch of the Royal Purple of Canada donated $1,000 and the Department of Education donated $1,200.