United Way Pembina Valley program helps families in need stay warm this winter
There is no doubt that an initiative like Koats for Kids is needed in the area given the response last week to the first of two distribution days.
The initial evening in Morden Wednesday saw the United Way Pembina Valley program again clear out nearly all of the winter clothing that was available to people in need.
“The hard part about it is there were certainly people who were hoping to get coats that didn’t because we just ran out,” said United Way board member Audrey Armstong. “I think it does kind of confirm that what we are doing has become an important thing in the community.”
The United Way earlier this fall put a call out for donations of all kinds of winter clothing—jackets, snow pants, toques, mittens and scarves—to help struggling families stay warm in the months ahead.
Part of those donations went out at the Morden distribution night at 500 Stephen last week. The rest were made available in Winkler at the Central Station Community Centre Tuesday night.
Armstrong said it was a busy evening in Morden, with over 300 coats donated as well as 25 pairs of boots.
“As we normally do, we got lots of toques and scarves, and some homemade by people, which is always so nice,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of mitts. People were looking for mittens and gloves, and we didn’t have as many of those, so we ran out early on those things.
“We would estimate we probably had close to 250 people attend, and lots of people brought their kids, which was great … and we gave away almost everything.
“We had fewer donations than last year. We were down a little bit there, but it’s not too bad,” Armstrong observed. “Some people do seem to keep it in mind each year in terms of donating stuff.
“We’re starting to see some trends,” she noted. “There are a lot of newcomers who are making use of the program, and then there’s … folks who are struggling financially and making use of food banks and so on.”
Given that level of need, she said it is great for the United Way to partner with organizations like the community centres in Morden and Winkler.
“It has been such a great resource because it really has centralized some of these services that would be targeting the kind of folks we want to reach,” she said. “It’s all doing great things for the community.”
