On Nov. 23-24 the Blanket BC Society will be launching its fourth annual “Drive on the Line” campaign along the Canada Line. This is a two-day blanket drive where over 100 volunteers will be collecting warming donations from the public, including socks, scarves, mittens, toques, and blankets.
Donations will then be divided up and distributed to over 50 shelters and organizations that work directly with society’s most impoverished individuals and families in Vancouver and throughout the Lower Mainland.
Last year the “Drive” successfully collected over 8,000 blankets and over 2,000 articles of clothing. The goal this year is to collect over 15,000 blankets, bringing Blanket BC to a total of 100,000 blankets collected to date.
Gregory Ould, a former Tri-Cities resident who now calls Mission home, is behind the blanket drive.
While walking out of a movie theatre in downtown Vancouver on a chilly October night back in 2005, Ould noticed a man lying in an alcove at the side of a building and asked him if there was anything he could do to help.
Ould was taken aback by what the man said: “I could use a blanket… to survive the night.”
Shortly after, Ould started Blanket BC, a non-profit society that raises funds and collects blankets, food, and warm clothes for homeless people.
For more information on Blanket BC, visit www.blanketbc.org or sign up to be a 2012 Drive-on-the-line volunteer at http://www.blanketbc.org/volunteer.html.