Clothing and Toy Giveway in Raymond

Posted on August 28, 2016 by Westwind Weekly

By Jonathan Guignard

Twitter: @guij26

With school just about to begin, the community of Raymond is making sure families have enough clothing on their back to get the year started.

The annual Clothing and Toy Giveaway will take place at the Raymond Elementary Gym on Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

It started out as something the community put together, but each year the event keeps growing so the Parent Link Centre has taken it over.

The clothing drive has been going on for a number of years and it’s something Mary-Rose McMullin of the Raymond Parent Link Centre believes is a great concept.

“We solicit donations of used clothing, toys and household goods from the community and we put it out for other members of the community to come and choose what they want with no fees or cost,” said McMullin.

McMullin believes it is extremely important to the community and can definitely help people save on what can be an expensive time of year for parents.

“We try to do it a week or two before school starts, so if there are people who need more clothes for their kids for school, this is available to them. It’s the big reason why we do it,” said McMullin.

She says the support she gets from the community is overwhelming and the amount of clothes donated seems to get bigger each year. There’s a lot of work that goes into the event and it takes dedication to pull it off.

“We get a whole lot of people donating clothing. We usually have a whole room full of bags of clothing and about 20 volunteers who come out to help. The clothing needs to be sorted and folded out on tables, so that’s been really nice,” said McMullin.

McMullin can’t say enough about the volunteers who continue to support the project year in and year out. It really says a lot about the community and how much people care about each other.

“We have whole families who will come. I talked to one mom and asked if she knew about the clothing giveaway this year and she says we all plan on coming again. It’s become a part of their routine,” said McMullin. “We also have some of the special needs adults in the community come help out as well.”

Donations can be dropped off at the Parent Link Centre all day today or tomorrow morning inside the Raymond Elementary Gym. For more information on how you can help you can contact McMullin at 403-393-3485.