Wrapping up hope for the homeless

Details

Published on Saturday, February 6, 2016

Banner file photo. During their visit to Winnipeg Harvest last year, the HOPE group learned how to make the care package t-shirt rolls.

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The Neepawa Area Collegiate (NACI) HOPE social justice group is getting ready to start their next project. From Feb. 8 to Feb. 26, the classes at NACI will be competing in a contest that will help the homeless across the province. 

HOPE will be creating t-shirt care packages to donate to Winnipeg Harvest, Samaritan House in Brandon and the Salvation Army in Neepawa. A t-shirt care package is made up of toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, deodorant and other toiletries all rolled in a t-shirt and pair of underwear and enclosed in a pair of socks. The rolls are then labeled by clothing sizes and for which gender they are intended. “Winnipeg Harvest typically makes these. They bring in volunteers and they spend the whole day making them,” explained Michelle Young, one of the teachers in charge of HOPE. “So we decided rather than go to Winnipeg to make them, why don’t we go to Winnipeg and do something else and take these made and ready to just be given away when we get there?”

The whole school is getting involved with a contest to see which classes can bring the most supplies for these packages. Students from any grade can bring in t-shirts of any size, but the rest of the supplies is divided into Middle Years (Grades 6-8) and Senior High (9-12), “Just to see that we might get a variety of things,” said Young. Middle Years students are asked to bring children’s socks, soaps and toothbrushes. Senior High is in charge of bringing in toothpaste, ladies’ socks, deodorant and travel shampoo. The HOPE group already has men’s socks for the project.  If anyone in the community wants to get involved, they are welcome to bring t-shirts, socks, underwear or toiletries to the school. 

The winning class in the Middle Years will be awarded an ice cream cake donated by Dairy Queen. The Senior High winning class will earn points for that grade in the annual Grade Wars competition the high school holds.

Once the contest is over, the supplies will be gathered up and rolled up into packages by the HOPE group. They will leave a few of the packages at the local Salvation Army and deliver some to Brandon, but the majority will go to Winnipeg, as that is where they are most needed. “And then what they do [at Winnipeg Harvest] is they will walk down the street where people spend the night and they will hand them out,” Young explained. 

The Middle Years HOPE group will make the first trip in to Winnipeg Harvest in March, bringing some of the care packages with them. The Senior High group will go in April. When they deliver the packages to Winnipeg, the group will also spend the day volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest. “Whatever they need that day is what we’ll do,” stated Young. She said in the past, they have helped by sorting potatoes and onions, bagging flour and sugar for food hampers and cleaning up the garden there. 

This will be HOPE’s last major project for this school year. The group decided to focus on just a couple big things and do them well rather than having to rush through a lot of small projects and not do them as well because of lack of time.