Parents and children, visited the Family SOS office on Gottingen St. to be outfitted with snowsuits and seasonal outerwear on Friday.
The organization’s Snowsuit Fund is a new initiative started by the organization this year to provide full snow attire to families in need.
“We noticed that access to proper winter attire was a barrier preventing children from playing outside during the winter months,” said Victoria Law, a spokesperson at Family SOS.
“We started the Snowsuit Fund to equip young people, head to toe, with the articles they need to play in the snow.”
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Every child that registers in the program will receive proper fitting boots, snow pants, a jacket, mittens, and a hat.
“We’ve also been providing jackets and warm accessories to parents as they drop-in,” said Law.
The Family SOS initiative is supported by the Nova Scotia government through the recreation and community grant program, which also helps the organization supply bicycles to kids in the summer.
“Initially, we only planned on outfitting 40 individuals, but the need was far greater than we expected, and we’ve now outfitted over 300 children and families.”
According to Law, filling the unexpected need wouldn’t have been possible without donations from individuals and partner organizations.
“We’ve had a lot of community support for the fund. We did a one-day snowsuit drive at the Mic Mac Mall, where we received around 120 donations, and many of our community partners put out collection boxes – McGinnis Cooper, Clearwater, Air Canada Jazz, IMP, and the IWK.”
The families were incredibly grateful, said Law. Some even expressed emotion after receiving their snow boots.
“One family came to us and their kids were wearing t-shirts. They had absolutely nothing for the winter and no way of accessing what they needed,” she said.