Looking for a tangible way to help vulnerable people living in Trail and the Greater Area?
Coming up Feb. 26 is a fundraiser called Coldest Night of the Year. This is the second year Career Development Services (CDS) on behalf of Trail Association for Community Living (TACL) is hosting a virtual walk to raise money for people experiencing hurt, hunger and homelessness — and they need your help.
CDS/TACL is looking for team captains to sign up for the event now, and set a fundraising goal to step toward.
Click here to go directly to the page: Coldest Night of the Year CDS/TACL
The registration fee has been eliminated to help make recruiting teammates easier and encourage fundraising.
There’s plenty of options for the event — if you don’t want to lead a team you can simply donate to a team of your choice.
And for a second year, due to ongoing COVID restrictions, there’s won’t be a formal meet-and-greet or community walk.
Instead, each team can take part in a real-time walk on a route of their own choosing that day, or team members can take a “virtual” walk in their own home to avoid in-person contact.
The point is that all money raised stays local to support CDS and their frontline workers who connect with vulnerable individuals to help find them a place to live and/or to connect them with community resources.
“The Coldest Night of the Year is a ‘winterrific’ family-friendly walk to raise money for local charities serving people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness,” CDS says. “Team up, walk, and fundraise! It’s cold out there, but there’s no place like home.”
The overall goal is to raise $20,000 for the cause.
To register for Coldest Night of the Year visit: https://cnoy.org. Type “Trail” in the search bar and this will bring you to the Trail event with links to sign up and to teams already registered.
Last year story here: TDT
Frontline CDS workers generally support 100+ people each year.
Individuals they help are of all ages. Of late, has been an increase in seniors that are homeless or at-risk of losing the roof over their head and there’s been an uptick in transitioning youth who are homeless.
But why is the homeless situation in Trail becoming more dire? What’s going on?
“There is a huge shortage of rental units in Trail and the rent increases have limited the options,” says CDS’ Sheila Adcock.
“The variety of housing needs are not being met at this time. For example, seniors, and supportive housing. Although we are working on exploring options and community needs, [the fact is] building new units does not work fast.”
Adcock says the need for financial backing is growing due to past funding options no longer being available. And, of course, the pandemic has quashed annual fundraising initiatives that have helped keep this much needed service afloat.
“With the increasing need to have outreach workers assisting the most vulnerable, now is the time we are asking the community to come together to help,” she explained.
“I know a lot of people are asking how they can become involved and support the most vulnerable citizens in the community and this is a great opportunity to feel good about being a part of the solution and encouraging others as well.”
Direct questions to Coldest Night of The Year event coordinators: Jennie at jennie.cdstrail@telus.net; or Sheila Adcock at Sheila.cdstrail@telus.net.
newsroom@trailtimes.ca
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