A Richmond couple is organizing a men’s clothing drive, after witnessing a drastic shortage during a visit to a homeless shelter in the city.
Next Saturday, Nov. 13, Angela and Chris Dinnell will host the event at Quilchena elementary in west Richmond to coincide with World Kindness Day.
The Dinnells felt they needed to help after recently dropping into the busy shelter at the old Minoru Seniors Centre.
While getting shown around by a member of staff, it became acutely apparent that the shelter occupants – the vast majority of whom are men – had little access to proper clothing.
The situation at the 60-bed facility is so dire that some of them were even wearing women’s apparel.
“They took us on a little tour of the room that holds the clothing and they had no clothing to offer to males,” Angela told the Richmond News.
“They told us that some of the men are wearing women’s clothing just because that’s all they have to offer.
“The room with clothes was pretty much empty, aside for old dress shirts, which there’s not much need for.
“Chris and I would like to change that and we have set up a donation drive, strictly for men’s clothing and warm gear for winter.”
Angela said the focus will be on gently-used comfort clothing, such as jackets, vests, toques, scarves, mittens, boots, shoes, pants, sweaters, hoodies and sweatpants. Socks and underwear, however, needs to be new.
She added that they’re not looking for cash donations, rather, they’d prefer people go to Value Village and buy the clothes that are needed.
The couple is renting a U-Haul trailer to take to Quilchena next Saturday, Nov. 13, which will be set up next to a tent from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’re going to ask people to come down and drop stuff off. We’re going to have boxes in the back of the U-Haul to separate the clothes into pants, shirts, sweaters and so on,” said Angela, adding that they will be handing out free coffee and donuts to donors.
For more information, email Angela at Angela@Dinnell.ca
