GUELPH – This year’s Guelph-Wellington Basketeers program was an overwhelming success.
Each year the Basketeers ask for donations of gift baskets with items required by women transitioning from a shelter to a new home.
The baskets are then donated to the Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
However, this year, due to COVID-19, the Basketeers pivoted and asked for donated gift cards from Walmart and Canadian Tire.
Laura Blinkhorn, coordinator of the Guelph-Wellington Basketeers, said the community support “was surprisingly excellent.
“Our continued supporters, along with a very strong number of new supporters showed an outpouring of generosity and concern.”
The group raised $12,150, which will help over 120 women in need, Blinkhorn said.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for seeing the value in this initiative from year to year,” Blinkhorn said.
“I sincerely hope we will be able to shop for, assemble, wrap and deliver baskets next year, but I am enlightened to know that regardless, women at risk have a friend in each of us.”
She said the group would be transitioning back to gifting physical baskets post-pandemic.
