Helpin' the Homeless

Truth be told, I'm a born and bred prairie girl who isn't used to seeing homeless on the streets. I grew up in the country where everyone had a car, a decent house and at least an acre of property.

When I first moved to Toronto I was appalled at the number of homeless on the streets. I knew that some of them had shelters or other living arrangments at night, but it broke my heart to see all of them huddled under shabby blankets on steam grates or toiling under the hot sun with their shopping cart full of discarded treasures in the summer. I used to give them some change here or there or buy them a sandwich if they would accept it, but then I moved downtown and found myself walking past at least ten homeless people on the way to school. If I gave generously to each person that asked, I would have to join them begging for change, but I knew I had to do something.

After many sleepless nights trying to come up with a plan, I suggested to my husband that we buy hundreds of blankets and distribute them; a sweet yet naive and very expensive plan that would have us on the street in record time. He had a much better suggestion. There are hundreds of units in our condominium complex, all of whom suffer from bulging closests and very little storage space. Why didn't I do a clothing drive in the building? Brilliant!

I enlisted a friend and fellow resident, Angela, and together we tackled the board of directors and local charities to make the necessary arrangments. In the end, the Salvation Army shelter, The Gateway, agreed to pick up and distribute the donations to their homeless and other shelters.

Our first clothing drive ran in December, and the most recent finished today. In total, over 100 large bins of donations were collected for the homeless, and it was much more than blankets. Every kind of clothing from designer jeans to shoes to underwear (eww!) made it into our bins. We didn't get to see the reaction of the recipients, but were told by the Salvation Army that people were thrilled.

If it made them smile even for a moment it was definitely worth it. Now imagine what would happen if everyone committed to do something small like that once a year. What would our world be like? All together now... awwww!