Annual Mikinakoos winter coat drive raises $40,000
The Mikinakoos Children’s Fund will be donating 1,248 winter coats to children in First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario this year.
The coat drive raised $20,000 from individual donors, which was matched by the Knights of Columbus, who provided an additional $20,000 donation.
“So many children in remote First Nations communities, they don’t have access or even sometimes the ability to purchase a new winter coat for themselves,” explains Mikinakoos Executive Director Stephanie Paxton.
Paxton says in these communities, children either rely on hand-me-downs from their communities, which can often be worn out, or are forced to forgo a coat entirely.
“So a lot of times children do suffer from the freezing weather. And that’s just unacceptable, in my mind,” Paxton adds.
Mikinakoos purchases new coats for children, which Paxton says can be very meaningful for those who receive them.
“We have seen firsthand the absolute awe that a child is in when they realize this is theirs. Nobody else gets to have this jacket. No one else has used this jacket before. That’s a really special thing for a child,” Paxton says.
The children’s fund hopes to continue growing year after year, supplying more coats as it can.
Unfortunately, inflation is complicating that effort.
The winter coat drive raised the same amount of money this year as it did last year, but last year the sum was enough to buy 1,400 coats, a full 150 more than this year’s haul.
Beyond the winter coat drive, Mikinakoos also has a children’s food security program, a school backpack program that includes providing healthy snacks, warm winter clothing programs (beyond coats), and a recreation program to help grant access to sporting, art, and culture programs for northern communities.
“We really strive to reach every aspect of a healthy life for kids in the North,” Paxton says.
“It’s really wonderful to be able to help support those communities and just to see the absolute happiness on children’s faces at being included in these kinds of activities and programming,” she remarks.
The winter coat drive’s fundraiser may be concluded, but Mikinakoos is still accepting donations on its website for help shipping its winter coats up north.
