Volunteers worked long hours last week at Winkler’s Faith Mission to help the Christian non-profit get caught up on its clothing donation backlog.
The three-day bale-a-thon started Thursday and ran into the weekend, with volunteer groups coming from all over to work well into the night sorting and packaging clothing for shipment to those in need overseas.
“It’s all mostly church groups,” executive director Nathan Elias shared Friday morning. “We had one group from Steinbach, there’s a local Ukrainian group of refugees … and the ones who are here right now are from Arborg.”
Speaking on behalf of volunteers that day from Interlake Mennonite Fellowship Church was Ken Reimer.
He says the church are always looking for ways to give back.
“We came out to help here for the day,” he said, noting IMF had about two dozen people there that day, all eager to make a difference.
“I think it’s a good mission,” Reimer said of Faith Mission. “They’re helping people in need.”
While volunteers sorting through clothing donations are a regular occurrence at the Cargill Dr. facility, a sustained, multi-day push like this is a first for them.
“We had a real backup [of donations],” Elias said. “We had so much clothes that every time we’d have a group come in they’d get quite a few baled but it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere with catching up.
“It’s been in my mind for awhile already to do something like this, and I just figured now was the perfect time.”
Elias was thrilled at the volunteer support the bale-a-thon drew, and he expects they’ll do it again in the future.
The sorted clothes are bound for Ukraine. Faith Mission sent 13 shipping containers of clothing and aid supplies to Ukraine in 2023, and they expect to send 15 or 16 containers this year.
Photos by Ashleigh Viveiros/Voice
This group from Interlake Mennonite Fellowship Church spent Friday sorting and baling clothes. They were one of several church groups who came out for three days last week to work long hours to get the mission caught up on its clothing donations
