Leduc girl Brooklyn Valaire found out about homelessness after watching videos on YouTube last year.
“We felt bad for the homeless and we wanted to help them,” Valaire said.
“I asked her, ‘So what do you want to do?’ and she said, ‘Why don’t we just fill up backpacks?'” said Crystal Manuel, Brooklyn’s mom.
Manuel started a Facebook page for her daughter to collect donations to fill the bags with essential items. This is the second year they handed out backpacks to people in the need. They set up in front of the Mustard Seed, Valaire said.
“[We gave them] sandwiches, water, coffee, clothing, toques, mitts, scarves,” Valaire said.
READ MORE: 6-year-old Leduc girl helps the homeless one backpack at a time
“A lot of people think it’s going to be scary, but introducing her to this culture and into the diversity to everybody here and letting her see… even though they don’t have homes, they’re still kind people, and still deserve the help they need to get,” Manuel said.
It started with 50 bags, and this year they added 20 more.
“The next one, we are going to do 100,” Valaire said.
READ MORE: The Mustard Seed helps man find community, home in Calgary
It’s a meaningful gesture for those on the receiving end.
“It is everything. When you’re homeless and on the street, you have nothing except yourself,” Brian Nelson said.
“I think it’s awesome. I think it’s great the young lady learning to be charitable and getting to know people and people actually seeing there are people down here — not just bums and mess,” Edwin Biddulph said.
“The backpacks are fairly pink and fairly useful.”
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