REGINA – The bitter deep freeze that has been plaguing our area means bundling up before heading outdoors, but for some people finding proper winter clothing can be a challenge.
“For some reason we haven’t got a lot of men’s mitts,” said Cora Sellers, executive director at Carmichael Outreach. “We’re really in short supply of those, so we see a lot of the guys coming in here with cold hands and they don’t have anything to cover them with. Sometimes we’ve resorted to giving them gardening gloves.”
Donations are coming in, but it is still not enough to keep up with demand at Carmichael Outreach. The centre is also in urgent need of toques, scarves, jackets, and even blankets and sleeping bags.
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“Basically, all types of winter clothing is much appreciated and very needed,” said Sellers.
The demand for winter clothes is being echoed by other organizations, including the North Central Family Centre. About 75 people walk through the door each week asking for warm clothes, more than what the centre has seen in the last few years.
“We get coats on a daily basis and as soon as they come in the coats go out,” said Ivan Amichand, assistant executive director at the North Central Family Centre.
Coats for kids, with star power backing from Roughrider Geroy Simon, has distributed close to 10,000 winter jackets in Saskatchewan this year.
“It’s been a huge success but there’s still a need,” said Simon. “We originally stopped collecting just because we figured we had enough but just seeing the need and seeing how cold it was this past week we wanted to continue it.”
New or gently-used coats can be dropped off at the Aspen Medical Centre (2300 Dewdney Avenue) and at IKS Melcher Media (1911 Park Street).
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