With mild temperatures and a bright, shining sun, on Feb. 24, volunteers and participants came together to raise awareness for homelessness in Elliot Lake for its Coldest Night of the Year event. This event was held by Maplegate House for Women.
Over 100 walkers and over 45 volunteers came together with smiles to walk the city's streets for homelessness. This year, funds raised will help furnish the new men's shelter Maplegate House for Women have recently purchased, entitled Larry's Place and will also help furnish the new transitional home for women who face housing barriers.
Maplegate House for Women executive director Melody Rose expressed her gratitude at the amount of walkers for the event.
"It's amazing to see people out and making a difference," she exclaimed before the walk began. "We have homelessness in Elliot Lake and raising awareness and helping them is my one of my passions. This new men's shelter has been needed for a long time. It's not just a bed, it's so much more."
According to Rose, the new men's shelter will be completely run by volunteers due to the lack of government funding for these types of shelters. Maplegate House for Women, along with Laurentian University will be gathering statistics concerning homelessness in the area.
"There are people in the bush, living in tents, and that's not ok," Rose explained. "Some men have come to the shelter and we've had to turn them away. Pretty soon, the shelter will be open for them to have a safe place to live in."
In 2016, Maplegate House for Women, which is run by the Elliot Lake Women's Group, unveiled a 'Something More' project, which included plans for the men's shelter and the transitional home for women. The ideas were brought to city council. The homes were purchased and after the purchase, Maplegate House for Women brought the zoning amendments requests to city council and were approved in January 2018.
Before the walk, event sponsor Shoppers Drug Mart owner Ana Lees expressed their gratitude toward the walkers and volunteers.
"We take a great source of pride in helping. We're really proud to partner with Maplegate," she said.
At 5:20 p.m, the walkers began their journey, departing from St. Peter's Anglican Church. After the walk, participants and volunteers were invited back to the church to warm up with hot soup, hot beverages as well as desserts.
At the end of the walk, Rose estimated this year's event raised over $20,000 though final numbers were not yet available.
"Thank you to everyone who helped out for this event: the volunteers, the walkers, just everyone," she said.