Gift that keeps on giving
Students try to encourage people to help organizations throughout year
When the Christmas lights come down, most people put their wallets away.
It’s a situation Blair Hill hopes to alleviate with the “Giving In Winter … It Warms the Heart” program.
“Everybody gives at Christmastime — we all feel good and we want to do that — but it’s really in the winter months that families are hurting the most,” said Hill. “These are the hardest months when families are struggling so we wanted to do this campaign so we could encourage people to give during the winter months and not just think about it at Christmastime.”
Hill is taking part in Cape Breton University’s COMS 3100 Community Action Project as part of the bachelor of arts in community studies program, along with fellow student Tiffany Binns. The students are collecting items to help local charities who work with those who may be struggling, such as The Cape Breton Family Place Resource Centre, EPIC’s Youth Peer Program and Caper Base Access 808.
Hill used Facebook to encourage friends and family to donate to his project, collecting 25 bags of non-perishable food items such as cereal, tea, pasta and canned goods that will be donated to Cape Breton Family Place Resource Centre. Binns has been collecting personal hygiene items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and deodorant as well as gloves, mitts and hats for the youth at Caper Base.
“I did it through social media and so basically my friends contacted me and dropped things off at my house,” said Hill. “One of my friends is a brownie leader and so the First Sydney Brownies who are at Bethel Church, we talked about my food drive and they had bags of groceries for me.”
Between February 12 and 14, youth at the EPIC’s Youth Peer program helped Binns and Hill put the packages together so they would be ready to be distributed by the Family Resource Centre and Caper Base on Feb. 16.
Peggy Gordon-Marsh, director of the EPIC Youth Peer program, says her program helps at-risk youth from across the Cape Breton regional Municipality, providing tutoring and building social skills. She says they were glad to assist Hill with his project.
“We have a great bunch of kids,” said Gordon-Marsh. “So we were excited to help. Blair used to do our parents peace project a number of years ago so he was familiar with the program and what we do and it’s great to teach the kids about giving back. They’ve been helping the last couple of days.”
“It’s been really nice to see — it’s this one little project that’s been kind of really touched and spread among a variety of people and groups which is really nice,” said Hill. “We’ve also been encouraging friends and relatives across the country not to send me money but to do the same in their own community, to donate to their local food bank.
“It’s all about getting people to give at this time of year.”