Week Sixteen: Clothing Collection from Friends for Donation Drop Off. (# 2)

To follow-up the clothing drive I did back in February, I decided to organize a second one since a lot of friends had reached out saying that they also had pieces that they wanted to give away. I’m glad to know that a total of eight people’s closets are now less packed, and that the clothes will now be put to good use by some less fortunate folks at The Ottawa Mission. A big thanks to my friend Sébastien who lent his car and chauffeur services for an afternoon to make this happen this time around. 

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Two simple trips which helped two different parties. That’s what I call an efficient double whammy.

G.

Week Seven: Clothing Collection from Friends for Donation Drop-Off. (#1)

Cottage weekend was coming up and 10 friends were attending. Samuel, one friend who unfortunately could not attend, suggested to ask everyone to bring something that could possibly be donated to people in need. I thought this was an amazing idea since it would be a great way to collect more items. Mo’ people, mo’ stuff, right? So I asked them to bring a couple of old articles of clothing that was taking up valuable space in their closets. (Nothing too big because everyone already had their hands and trunks full of stuff for the weekend.) It was also a great way to encourage them to start early on their Spring cleaning. Win-win situation, I thought! As expected, the group responded well to this idea. And then some. A few said that they actually had big bags of clothes to get rid of, so I suggested to wait until the following week to try to coordinate something and make one big trip to a donation centre instead. I reached out to another good friend of mine, Mathieu, who has a car (and a really big heart), to ask if he could help me bring everything to the Mission. He immediately agreed. I picked the Ottawa Mission as the designated drop-off centre as I wanted to make sure that the clothes would be put to good use, as opposed to being resold or thrown away. A couple of days after cottage weekend, the clothes were donated and everyone was left feeling lighter in clothes and good about their deed. I was happy to have acted as the bridge between the two. 

Thanks for the suggestion Sam!

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What was even more impressive was the response I received post-posting this picture on Instagram and Facebook. A great number of people came up to me and said that they also had things to donate. As a result, I decided that it would be worth organizing a second clothing collection in the next little while. I will be coordinating that soon, so I will keep everyone posted. It’s great how word gets around so quickly!

G.

Week Four: Wool Socks for a Homeless Person.

As I was coming back from work the other day in -25^oC weather, I noticed a homeless and also sockless man walking in front of me. I felt so bad for him and his lack of socks - so much that I was contemplating of taking off my own feet warming gear and handing it to him. I didn't, however, it did spark an idea for my fourth week gesture. The next day, I decided to change my usual morning trek to work in order to pass in front of the Ottawa Mission. I brought along a pair of warm wool socks because I figured that someone might put them to good use, especially since we were expecting even colder weather later on in the week. I approached an older gentleman who seemed to be chilly in front of the Mission and I asked if he was interested in accepting this small gift. The man looked at me for a moment, with kindness in his eyes, and said "Oh yes please", followed by many thank yous. I asked how his day was going so far and he responded: “It just got that much better.” Seeing the gratitude that this man was expressing had made my day that much better in return.

*Side note - a local radio station from the County of Simcoe will be talking about my project on air at 6pm on Wednesday, January 30th! A friend from my hometown, who is now a radio host for the francophone station Vague FM 88.1, was following me on Twitter and noticed what I was up to. She sent me a message asking if she could talk about it on her show because she thought that it was such a neat concept and felt like sharing it. Listen to the coverage here: http://vaguefm.ca/lecteur/.  

This is truly amazing. I feel good about this thing. 

Instagram: geneseguin. #k4kproject

G.