Rocky View Schools teachers collected hundreds of toques, scarfs and gloves to help give families a warmer Christmas.
The union local chose to support Inn from the Cold in Calgary because the organization provides support to families in need in the region.
“Which was what we thought would be a good fit with teachers,” said Rocky View local President Andrea McLeod, “they’re supporting parents and kids.”
McLeod said that when they spoke with staff at Inn from the Cold about running this campaign, “they were thrilled.”
The brand-new collection campaign ran for the last two weeks of November and the first week of December with teachers in all Rocky View School’s, schools asked to collect and donate new scarfs, mitts, gloves, hats, and socks.
“We didn’t actually count all the items but we had several hundred for sure,” said McLeod.
The donation was made in Calgary on Dec. 13.
“They were thrilled,” she said.
“They said to us there’s a lot of families in need in the Calgary area,” said McLeod.
The union local decided to start this new charitable initiative this year in response to the economic conditions of late.
“We’ve just seen, with the economy, we’ve seen an increase in need,” she said.
McLeod said that when they suggested the idea to the teachers across Rocky View County that the campaign was warmly received.
“Teachers are more than happy to help out and donate to good causes so we had no problem’s there,” she said.
While she didn’t track the amount of donations by school or region, McLeod said that she did get a significant number of donations from the Chestermere and Langdon areas.
With the success, they had with this campaign, McLeod said that they are planning to run this again next year, although they are thinking about changing the timing a little.
McLeod said that they might run it a little earlier next year to avoid conflicts with other Christmas campaigns run in the schools.
