Have you ever wondered where all those clothes are sorted each year? You know, the ones you buy at the Children's Centre fundraiser in the Spring? Thousands of articles of clothing for the entire family, all sorted according to size and gender, then folded and set out for you to find your treasure.
For years, the clothes were gathered in people's basements, garages, rec rooms - anywhere you could store an extra box. In early March volunteers would take their various boxes to one person's house and start sorting...and sorting....until the sale in May! As the years have moved on, the enthusiasm to sacrifice valuable space in private homes for storing clothing months on end became, well, less fun.
This year all of that clothing chaos is a thing of the past thanks to the Western Homesteads folks. Daron Jennings and his valiant group of associates, including Jeff Dempsey, Scott Perry, Corby Bernard, Mike Laudrum and Peter and Jacques Duplessis have donated all of the labour and materials and are building a permanent storage shed on the Bowen Children's Centre property.
Kudos also to Lena at Bowen Building Centre for donating some of the materials for this project. Two thirds of the space will go to clothing sorting and storage and one third to emergency preparedness supplies.
Not only does this alleviate storage issues around the Island but lightens the time commitment from our over-worked volunteers. With a shed on site volunteers can sort clothes as they come in.
This year's sale is on May 7. Ann Silberman says clothes can be dropped off any time Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The deadline for this year's sale is April 30. Please come and support this fundraiser as it's critical to the future of the Children's Centre and check out the new shed! Parents and staff are very grateful to this wonderful community support initiative from Daron and Western Homesteads.
And speaking of people supporting their community - to all the volunteers and staff of the Children's Centre over the years, thank you for giving our children a creative, loving, enriching place to learn about the world in which they live.
We are all grateful.
Colleen O'Neil, Community Foundation
