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Jacket Drive aims to keep kids warm during winter months

Oct 18, 2018 | 9:00 AM

With the long winter months ahead of us, it’s important to make sure kids are bundled up.

That’s the idea behind the Gord Slater Annual 2018 Jacket Drive and Kid’s Mini Carnival this weekend at Connaught Elementary School. The event, which is on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., aims to collect warm clothes for kids in and around the Battlefords.

“It’s very important to get clothing for these kids,” Gordon Slater, the coordinator of the drive said. “I see them walking around in winter time with socks on their hands. That’s what started the whole thing.”

Slater said the event didn’t happen the last two years, but previous to that, it ran from 2013 to 2015. The donations will go directly to the Battleford’s District Food and Resource Centre, Battleford’s Boys and Girls Club, and the Battleford’s Indian Métis Friendship Centre.

“We’re looking for donations of jackets, and other warm wear,” Colleen McWaggers, a volunteer with the drive, said. “Like mitts, scarves, toques, socks, any warm wear that children of the area can use.”

The drive does include a mini-carnival, with prizes, games, and even a bouncy castle for the kids to enjoy.

“We’ll have a small concession, 50/50 draws, raffle items, and we’ll put up simple little games for the kids. What we try and do is every child that shows up wins something,” she said.

 

brady.lang@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @BradyLangCJNB