Today was the most meaningful experience for me in the Challenge so far. Casey and I teamed up to go and learn more about the Anamiewigumming Fellowship Centre (aka the Kenora Fellowship Centre) as part of our effort to raise awareness of different community resources during the Week of Action Against Poverty.
We headed over around 1:00pm today while the Centre was hosting its Coffee Corner. During the afternoon, Coffee Corner provides a place for people to get out of the cold and have a hot beverage. Today they also had soup and sandwiches for lunch.
The patrons were surprised to see us but seemed very open to meeting newcomers. I had an especially interesting but disheartening conversation with an elder from Grassy Narrows who was in town doing volunteer work. He had overheard me talking to someone else about my occupation and wanted to tell me about the plight of people on local reserves who are facing Hydro bills as high as $13,000 just to keep their homes heated.
I also wanted to bring a donation to the Centre as part of our visit today (this was not a requirement of the Challenge so I didn't take it out of my $55 budget). The worker I handed my donation bag to was the most enthused about the packages of new underwear, which she said a number of women are in need of right now.
If you are interested in donating to the Kenora Fellowship Centre, they offer an online PayPal option for monetary donations on their website.
Making Kenora Home is also accepting donations of new socks and underwear during their Kickers and Knickers campaign this upcoming week.
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