By Trish Bauder [1]
BELLEVILLE – A challenge to collect warm clothing for homeless people was held at a basketball game at Loyalist College on Tuesday night.
The 100 Scarf Challenge was trying to collect 100 scarves.
The project was spearheaded by Nick Foley of Belleville, who run Celebrate the Hero [2], an organization that encourages people to help each other.
Foley got the idea for the challenge when he was shovelling snow, said Tori Buck, who helped run the challenge. He thought that if it was cold for him outside it must be much worse for homeless people, Buck told QNet News.
Buck, who runs a group for youths from 16 to 24 years old to help raise awareness about mental health, decided to help Foley with the challenge.
Tori Buck and some members of her youth group called Youth Empower. Photo by Trish Bauder, QNetNews
Buck was the one who came up with the target of 100 scarves.
“We put out a number to just challenge ourselves – just wanted to give a number to people so they would be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re trying to get 100 and I have at least five I could give to donate,’ ” she said.
Members of the group collected scarves at the Tuesday’s game. The target of 100 was reached easily, but the exact number won’t be known until they’re counted on Friday..
The hope is that the challenge is something that is done every year, said Buck.
“I think this is going to be a yearly thing for sure. Nick even has the idea of even tuques or maybe doing socks in October – like ‘Sockober,’ lets say.”
QNet attempted to speak to Foley but was unable to get in touch by deadline.