The 2022 Everybody Deserves A Smile campaign is in full swing at 脡cole Punledge Park.
Friday, Dec. 9 was the final packaging day, as students from throughout the Comox Valley gathered at the school鈥檚 gymnasium to fill 1,355 bags of hope, for those in need in the Comox Valley, and beyond.
Each custom-designed bag contains a personal message of encouragement from a student, as well as some cold weather essentials, such as toques, scarves, mitts and socks, and a few toiletry items.
After two days of packaging, the parcels will all be hand-delivered by the EDAS team of adults and students, to the various agencies and shelters in the Comox Valley.
Once the local distribution is complete, the team travels down-Island for stops in Nanaimo and Victoria, before completing the mission with a large drop-off in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside.
Team EDAS member Riley McCarthy said the program has given her an entirely new outlook on the homelessness situation in the Comox Valley.
鈥淭his is just a really amazing program,鈥� said the Grade 7 脡cole Punledge Park student. 鈥淣ormally on Mondays, we will have different seminars on things like addiction and why people are homeless, and it just really is an amazing insight into our community and the homeless population. One time we had somebody talk about their whole family that was homeless. It can happen to anybody, and for different reasons. It can be just a bad couple of months, and it can change at any time.鈥�
McCarthy will be part of the distribution team this weekend, taking the bags of hope to the different agencies and shelters in the Comox Valley. She said that will bring it all home for her.
鈥淚 am really looking forward to handing out these bags this weekend. I think it will be an amazing experience and I am so glad I am a part of this.鈥�
EDAS founder and 脡cole Punledge Park teacher Chantal Stefan said there was a call out for scarves last week, as that was the one item they were in need of to reach their numbers, and the community came through.
鈥淎s always,鈥� she said of the community rallying to help. 鈥淲e have been having these random scarf 鈥榤iracles.鈥� Somebody dropped off 80 the other day, someone else dropped off 15. I am getting texts and messages from people offering to donate scarves. It鈥檚 really, really exciting.鈥�
terry.farrell@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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