You don’t have to be in a red Santa suit to spread the good cheer of the season.
A Filipino community in Victoria, some 70 kilometers southeast of Saturna Island, provided help to a ship stranded in Georgia Strait, with a crew of 10 Filipinos and 6 Koreans.
The crew members don’t know when they’ll go home since their shipping company is currently facing an international bankruptcy problem.
“The 255-metre Hanjin Scarlet has been stuck on the B.C. coast since Sept, after Hanjin Shipping collapsed financially. Unpaid bills led to the ships being detained in provincial waters, where they are required to remain for now,” reports the Times Colonist.
The simple Christmas delivery consists of a Christmas tree, a suckling pig, DVDs and board games, fresh and canned food, baked goods, beer and champagne.
“When we heard there were some Filipino crews, we thought, we have to step up,” said Dominga Passmore of the Victoria Filipino-Canadian Association in the Times Colonist report.
According to a report by CBC News, the crew members were also glad to receive warm clothes since they weren’t ready for the winter.
“It’s lonely,” said sailor Romeo Cabacang from the Philippines. “But all the crew, we are very happy for the early Christmas gift. We are very happy.”
The crew is facing an uncertain future, but they’re happy to have something to tide them over the holidays.
Hanjin is the seventh-largest shipping line in the world. It filed for bankruptcy in Sept.
