(Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

KINDNESS KITS

Combating wet, winter living conditions for city’s homeless with Kindness Kits

Dec 13, 2019 | 4:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — With snow and slush comes a dire need for dry clothing for people who live on the streets of Kamloops.

Kindness Kits put together through a local thrift store aim to ease the living experience for those who don’t have a clean or dry set of clothing to wear.

For three years, Bonnie McBride at Second Chances Thrift Store has been gathering cold-weather items to provide ready-made kits to the city’s homeless. So far, McBride says the group has distributed more than 2,000 of the clothing packages throughout Kamloops.

“So kits contain — if we have them — shoes, they contain a pair of pants, two undershirts, a sweater or a hoodie, and a jacket if we have them,” says McBride. “Socks and underwear, and if we’ve got water bottles or thermal heat pads for in your gloves… any of those types of things.”

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Donations have been steady, but after McBride put together 250 kits to be given out by the Kamloops Lived-Experience Committee on Christmas Day, supplies will need to be replenished.

Those looking to help out can purchase a kit ahead of time, which will then be distributed to someone in need in the community.

“There’s two ways to buy kits. The first one is to come into either one of our stores, purchase it at the till. Each kit is just $5, and that buys a full set of clothes for somebody. If you want to do that online, you can do that as well by visiting our website,” said McBride.

To donate, Second Chances Thrift Store can be found in two locations: 168 Oriole Road, and the old SPCA location at 1211 8th Street.