The Yo Mobile will have a warm place to store coats to donate to people in need thanks to a donation from a Timmins Chamber of Commerce initiative.
The organization's Business Takes the Lead has been raising money for local charities with the 100 People Who Care campaign.
This quarter, $5,000 was donated to the Yo Mobile.
“This is going to help a lot. Right now we have a van that we park at city hall and we cart around our jackets and our boots and other clothing articles that we donate to some of the people that use the Yo Mobile. This is going to enable us to put a heater and shelves in the garage where we store all the stuff that we donate. People will be able to come try on coats and boots in a heated environment and we won’t have to cart the items,” said Colette Fortier, Yo! Mobile vice president.
The Yo Mobile is is set up Friday and Saturday nights. So far this season, there have been about 200 people per night using the service.
For people wanting to help out, Fortier said donations of Mr. Noodles, hot chocolate, Vachon cakes, or other pre-packaged food items are welcome. They are in need of larger size gloves and socks as well.
“We also give hygiene kits to people that come on the bus. So items that we can use to make the kits, like soaps, kleenexes, losanges, anything that we can build our kits with are appreciated as well,” she said.
For the 100 People Who Care initiative, businesses commit to donating $100 and the pooled amount is donated to a charity voted on by the participating businesses.
In 2019, Timmins Chamber president Val Venneri said a total of $30,000 was donated.
- With files from RogersMedia
