As summer months approached this year, the shelves at Pelham Cares began to look bare. The Pelham Canada Day planning group knew that this year’s modified Canada Day events could provide a unique opportunity to help restock the shelves.

The planning group, which meets to develop the annual event in Pelham, launched the charity T-Shirt campaign. Charity T-shirts were available for pre-order and were then picked up curb side at the Meridian Community Centre in June. In total, over $1505 was raised for Pelham Cares through the T-shirt campaign.

In addition, the group facilitated the collection of donations at the Drive Thru event held in Fenwick. During the event, that took place in Centennial Park, community members were encouraged to bring both food and monetary donations. With the assistance of volunteers, a total of $473 in financial donations and over 30 bags of food were collected.

“The monetary donations received are being used for our bulk food purchases towards our staple items we continue to be low on” said Jennifer Dubé, Pelham Cares Office Manager, “The food items received went directly on our shelves into our Food Hampers. We are so humbled by the support we receive from our community and Town of Pelham”

Support from the community was impressive and far exceeded the expectations of the Canada Day planning group. Pelham Cares has seen an increase in individual need and emergency food orders over the past year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds raised for Pelham Cares, from the Canada Day event go directly back to meet the needs of the community.  The planning group will review the charity elements, in consideration for future events.