St. Aidan’s Anglican Church teamed up with St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church to, once again, prepare gift bags for the women staying at the Dempsey women’s shelter this past Christmas.
This year, the need was greater than ever. The Dempsey shelter went from housing 60 women last year to housing 90 women in 2023. We were also informed that many more women were staying at a new shelter recently opened at the Heron Community Centre, which added up to more than 200 women at the two shelters.
The two churches stepped up to prepare 90 gift bags for the Dempsey shelter. Along with parishioners, other community members joined in with donations of items such as winter hats, scarves, gloves, socks, toiletries, chocolate, pens and pencils. The generosity was so great that, although we could not prepare gift bags for the women at the Heron Centre, we were able to make donations of needed items to share with them. City councillor Marty Carr’s office helped with the distribution of these items at the Heron Centre.
Many thanks to all who participated in this outreach project.
Advent and Christmas in a time of war: the Four Last Things