Our "Winter Wear Program" helps bridge the gap for low-income families by removing the burden of purchasing big ticket items like winter coats and boots when budgets are tight. The goal of this program is to ensure children and youth are warm for playing outdoors, but also to give them the same opportunity as other children in their community and help them feel included.
By fulfilling a "Wish" this winter, you will ensure that a family will stay warm through the coldest months of the year.
Wishes for Winter was introduced in 2024, and supassed our goals. The concept was introduced with the hopes of reaching more families who are living in poverty within our community. With increased costs, the funding we have available will not be enough to help all the children who register for this program, and keep them warm.
Last year, 36 children of over 150 registered children were sponsored through the Wishes for Winter Campaign. The positive response from donors encouraged us to aim to support a larger number of children and youth this year.
We are looking to our generous community to help us! This year, our goal is to provide 280 children with winter wear and our aim is to have 75 of these children sponsored by the community through the Wishes for Winter Campaign.
What you should expect:
1 Child Families = $100- $200
2 Child Families = $150- $300
3 Child Families = $250- $450
If you are able to support a larger family, there will be an option to contact us directly or you can complete an additional form for another family!
Based on your completed registration (below), we will match you with your family and provide you details of what they need this winter to keep warm. Items will include a combination (or all) of winter boots, snow pants and coats.
We will provide you with all sizing and information you will need to start shopping.
We will not provide you any personal information or identifiers of the family.
Now the fun part - you get to shop! (and keep the receipts!)
We will provide you a few guidelines, but the rest is up to you. The deadline to provide the items to us will be October 24, 2025.
Once you purchase the items, they can be dropped off at our Fergus location (Community Resource Centre at the Skyline Community Hub, 900 Tower Street South). We can arrange for pick up if drop off during our office hours does not work for your schedule.
We ask that you do not provide any identifiers for you or your family in your package drop off.
We will also provide you with the package to receive your tax receipts - so your shopping receipts are important. Without them submitted, we cannot issue a tax receipt to you.
For any further questions, please reach out to Alyssandra (Ally) Kent at akent@communityresourcecentre.org.