Izzy Johnston (L) and Rosie White (R) holding a few of the 785 care packages delivered on Thursday, Dec. 21. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

community effort

‘I like making people feel happy:’ huge care package delivery made to Nanaimo’s homeless population

Dec 21, 2023 | 4:42 PM

NANAIMO — Life without a stable home is hard, particularly over the Christmas holidays.

Several schools in Nanaimo converged for the annual Everybody Deserves a Smile campaign to brighten the spirits of people locally living rough.

Precisely 785 packages containing comfort items including gloves, a scarf, toiletries and home-baked cookies were delivered to several Nanaimo social service agencies on Thursday, Dec. 21.

Hosted by Ecole Hammond Bay Elementary School, grade seven students like Rosie White worked feverishly on the project for several weeks, featuring letters of hope written by students and the items placed in a painted bag.

“I like making people feel happy and getting warm stuff for the winter because I know it’s going to be cold out for them when they’re out on the streets,” White told NanaimoNewsNOW.

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An initiative led by grade seven students, White and her classmates assembled the packages the day prior, and then personally delivered them to nine different Nanaimo organizations.

Izzy Johnston, a classmate of White’s, said they’ve gained an understanding of the challenges homeless people face.

“We’ve been doing a lot of things about people experiencing homelessness, learning about them, learning about reasons why they are on the road and we went on a field trip to learn more about them,” Johnston said.

Ecole Hammond Bay Elementary School’s gym temporarily transformed into a sea of carefully assembled care packages for Nanaimo’s less fortunate. (Megan Barritt-Flatt)

This year’s Everybody Deserves a Smile campaign was supported by several schools: Rock City, Uplands, Departure Bay, Fairview, Aspengrove and NDSS.

Headed by Ecole Hammond Bay seventh grade teacher Megan Barritt-Flatt, she noted their entire school population participated.

The project has been a discussion point throughout the school for the past several weeks, Barritt-Flatt said.

“Where are these bags going? Why somebody might need a present? Why somebody might not be getting presents from other people? It can start conversations even in our youngest learners.”

Barritt-Flatt was at non-profit agency Risebridge where she and her students dropped care packages off for the social agency, currently home to a daytime warming centre.

She said a woman using Risebridge’s services had a message she wanted to share.

“They are people too, they want to be loved, they want to be seen and they are human just like everybody else.”

Describing the Everybody Deserves a Smile movement as a privilege and honour to be a part of, Ecole Hammond Bay principal Shannon Apland said delivering the packages was a powerful experience.

“It was absolutely a special day for everyone involved, giving back to humanity, seeing people face-to-face, giving that smile, letting people know that we see you, we care,” Apland said.

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes