When Caroline Lu walked into Santa’s secret warehouse over the Thanksgiving weekend to volunteer, it was a way to give back to the community that once supported her.

The now 19-year-old University of Toronto student helped to pack the gift boxes that 45,000 underprivileged children will receive this Christmas — nearly a decade after she received her very first one.

“I was cleaning my room and rediscovered (the gift box),” Lu told the Star. “So I saw it, and I was like, I want to provide for the community that provided for me.”

Lu, who is in her second year of studying cognitive science, still has one of the Santa Fund gift boxes she received, at age 12 — a cheerful, green box decorated with skiing penguins, decked out in hats and scarves.

As a girl, Lu was connected to the Santa Claus Fund through a Toronto-area shelter, where she lived for a year with her mother and older brother.

They left their house around Christmastime, she said. That year, she received her very first gift box from the Santa Claus Fund.

“This box is just a great present,” Lu said. “And we don’t really celebrate Christmas, but I don’t think having a box like this means you’re celebrating Christmas or anything. To see so many people come together toward one goal, and just make children happy. I think that’s very wonderful.”

After recently rediscovering the box in her room, Lu went online to find out about volunteering.

Lu and her friend Nhi Trinh Le — who took the bus from McMaster University for the day to volunteer — helped to sort gifts and put them into the boxes, which this year are decorated with reindeer, trees, snowmen and penguins. Each gift box contains items that are gender neutral but age-specific.

“I was seeing the hats and the gloves, and it reminded me of the ones that I got,” Lu said. “It’s just crazy to see how, even after — I’m 19 — so after nine years, this is still going on. And stuff is still the same. It’s been consistently like this. It’s cool.”

Santa Claus Fund recipients receive a gift box with a warm shirt (toddlers get a fleece-lined tracksuit while newborn infants get a five-piece set that includes onesies), a warm hat, warm gloves or mittens, socks, a toy, a book, cookies and dental hygiene items (aged 4 and up) inside.

It’s the only present many of the kids will receive this holiday season, which is why the gift boxes aim to cover the basics and then some.

Lu distinctly remembers receiving gummy bears in at least one of the gift boxes — and dental hygiene items.

“We didn’t grow up in a very wealthy environment, so we got some regular Colgate mint” toothpaste at home, Lu said.

But her Santa Fund gift box contained fruit-flavoured toothpaste that she remembers to this day.

“I was like, this is so weird and so different,” Lu said, laughing. “Santa loves me.”

This year, when the children receiving gift boxes this holiday season open them Christmas morning, they’ll find fruit-flavoured toothpaste inside.

Correction – November 9, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Nhi Trinh Le’s name.

If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund or have a story to tell, please email santaclausfund@thestar.ca. Click here to donate now.