Hundreds of coats donated to kids in need around Thunder Bay

1,572 Thunder Bay area kids are wearing brand new coats this winter thanks to donations from The Knights of Columbus.

It was a record-breaking year province-wide, with over 20,736 coats delivered.

The project was in collaboration with non-profits Precious Bundles and the Mikinakoos Children’s Fund.

“The children and their families are extremely grateful,” said Craig Murphy, Grand Knight of the Bishop Norman Gallagher Council in Thunder Bay. “They get a hold of a brand new winter coat, and they say ‘This is my coat,’ it almost empowers them. It tells them that we care and that they matter.”

Through the Mikinakoos Children’s Fund, coats were delivered to six northwestern Indigenous communities as well.

“Three years ago we were put in touch with the Mikinakoos Children’s Fund, and in conversations with them we quickly realized the need to provide winter coats to children living on northern reserves,” Murphy said. “Each year, we’ve partnered with them again.”

“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,” said Mikinakoos Executive Director Stephanie Paxton in an earlier interview. “So a lot of times children do suffer from the freezing weather. And that’s just unacceptable, in my mind.”

Tickets are now available for a 50/50 raffle in support of the Knights’ Coats for Kids fund and their other charitable works.