By Dylana Milobar

Kamloops Givers gathering donations for local homeless population

Nov 17, 2018 | 12:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Givers are putting out the call for donations ahead of the Mustard Seed New Life Community’s annual Christmas dinner.

Inspired after working in a shelter and seeing firsthand the kind of positive impact donations can have on the less fortunate, Coordinator Deanna DeCicco started the group about 5 years ago.

DeCicco says most of the volunteers who maintain the operation are her friends and some of the congregation from the Kamloops Seventh-day Adventist Church, which she attends.

“People that donate are anybody in the community,” She explains, “That’s why its called the Kamloops Givers, anyone in Kamloops can drop off items and donate them.”

DeCicco, who also owns and operates the Manhandler Barbershop downtown, says the group is asking for new items such as socks, toques, and hygiene product, and have made somewhat of a tradition of gathering insulated coffee mugs.

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“I talked to the girls at my barbershop, and we decided that every month of November, we would take a dollar from every haircut, and we would buy the coffee mugs with that.” 

She says every year they change what exactly their donation gift bags will include, with this year’s focus being thick, wool, survival-style blankets.

“We should not be satisfied with just giving money,” DeCicco says, “We should spread our love everyone where go, and I think these bags are saying more than you know, ‘here you go’, its showing that we love these people.”

Donations can be dropped off at the Manhandler Barbershop at 246 4th Avenue downtown, or at the 7th day Adventist Church on Fortune Drive on Saturdays until 1pm.

The group can be contacted via Facebook or by email at kamloopsgivers@gmail.com, and their video outlining this year’s cause can be found here.