The Comox Valley Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser is ahead of its fundraising from last year as the walk approaches this weekend.
The walk, which is a national event on Feb. 24, will benefit the Comox Valley Transition Society and Dawn to Dawn as they build a 48-unit apartment building to bring more affordable housing to the area.
“For both Dawn to Dawn and ourselves, it’s about creating more housing so that there are more places to have people able to find shelter, getting people out of the cold,” said Transition Society executive director Heather Ney.
“At the same time, there are some people that can barely pay their rent or can’t pay their rent for all the other expenses, and being able to maintain their housing is another important factor for us.”
As of Wednesday, there are 395 walkers, 90 teams and 59 volunteers for this year’s walk, which kicks off Saturday at the Native Sons Hall at 4 p.m. Fundraising is also at around 62 per cent of their $200,000 goal.
With a few days before the walk, Ney says there is still lots of time to sign up and donate. Donations are open until Mar. 31, and you can learn more about how to do that at cnoy.org.
With donations ahead, Ney says it speaks to the generosity of the Comox Valley. While it is a relatively small community, Ney says it gives so much.
“I really want to give a shout-out to the generosity of the Comox Valley. It does such a big job of raising funds and Dawn to Dawn and CVTS couldn’t be more thankful as the funds raised are critical to us achieving our goals,” said Ney.
