Final 12 months’s coat drive served roughly 900 households. This 12 months, with the necessity considerably larger, volunteers estimate that the occasion surpassed that quantity, serving to nearer to 1,000 households.
EDITORS NOTE: This text initially appeared on Oakville Information on Oct. 21.
The Bronte Village Winter Coat Drive introduced heat to the neighborhood on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at St. Dominic Faculty on Rebecca Road.
Vehicles arrived at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 18, loaded with over 1,500 coats collected over the previous a number of months, able to be distributed to these in want the next morning.
Volunteers of the drive say Oakville Hydro performed an important position in supporting the initiative, offering cupboard space for the donated coats and volunteering each time and sources to make the drive potential.
Hydro workers loaded the vehicles and delivered the coats to the varsity on Friday evening, the place volunteers labored into the evening, establishing the auditorium till round 9 p.m.
On Saturday morning, volunteers arrived at 7:30 a.m. to finalize preparations earlier than opening the doorways at 8 a.m. Regardless of the chilly climate, roughly 1,000 households got here by the drive, with some lining up as early as 6 a.m.
The distribution was well-organized, with stations arrange for winter coats – sorted into classes for girls, males, and kids.
Extra stations supplied boots and important winter equipment like hats, scarves, mittens, and gloves. Volunteers labored diligently to make sure everybody had what they wanted for the upcoming winter.
With hundreds of donations, the gang stored coming and the drive was virtually out of males’s coats by 10:30 a.m.
That is the eleventh annual Bronte Coat Drive and occasion organizer Ruth Perkins says it is all the time a rewarding expertise to provide again.
“That is giving the neighborhood a possibility to do one thing personally that does not price them something, simply take one thing out of my closet and provides it to somebody who wants it,” mentioned Perkins.
“We give out invites to the companies within the space and so they give them to their shoppers, and so they’ll come as we speak with their invitation, which permits one household per invitation and they’re going to store for what they want or what they’ll discover,” she continued.
Final 12 months’s coat drive served roughly 900 households. This 12 months, with the necessity considerably larger, volunteers estimate that the occasion surpassed that quantity, serving to nearer to 1,000 households.
By comparability, when the occasion first passed off in 2013, 470 coats have been collected, and round 350 folks have been served. Since 2020, occasion organizers say the demand has risen by roughly 50%.
Collectively, occasion volunteers contributed between 500-600 hours to make the day occur.
Mentioned occasion volunteer David McCleary, “This (time) was spent, contacting companies to offer data on how their shoppers might get coats, assortment on the church, promotion at occasions resembling Lake Notes, the Farmers Market, and (Bronte) Block Get together. There have been 4 Saturdays of drop-off in September and 6 days of sorting and racking. Then there was the setup day and Saturday (official opening day).”
McCleary says the “core” of the coat drive consists of Walton United Church, Epiphany Church, St. Dominic Parish, and Oakville Hydro. Collectively, they helped volunteers serve the regular stream of households getting ready for the winter.
