More than 200 people visited with Downtown Mission leadership during their annual 24-hour bench talk fundraiser between Thursday and Friday morning.
The mission’s executive director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin said while there’s still time to donate online, roughly $10,000 was collected during the event.
“It went really well,” Ponniah-Goulin exclaimed. “We had a wonderful evening and night.”
The fundraiser, now in its seventh year, was intended to get people talking about what’s happening at The Downtown Mission and across the city as the region’s homeless population continues to climb.
Officials claim food bank use and youth centre demand has doubled in just the last year alone, noting the shelter’s food bank serves about 2,000 people per month while putting out between 300-600 meals per day.
“It was a really good evening and night of conversations with just a diverse group of people from our community,” Ponniah-Goulin said.
“A lot more people came this year than last year, which, I was a little surprised about because last year we I know we were celebrating our 50th anniversary.”
“We're very thankful to our community,” she continued. “We had lots of people, even if they didn't stop by, all through the night they were honking horns, you know, we had people that dropping off coffees to us.”
“It's nice to see people give,” said Ward 3 Coun. Renaldo Agostino.
“You see a lot of interesting things sitting out here in the middle of the night, but you also see a lot of interesting people that come up and it gives you a different perspective. And I wish that a lot of people would sit out here and kind of see what good work The Mission is doing and see what the issues are surrounding the downtown neighborhoods.”
Agostino added, “What we're going through here is all hands on deck approach. And it's not just the police. It's not just the residents. It's not just the businesses. It's just everyone's got to step up. Everyone's got to care.”
Windsor police officials were also on hand Friday morning to extend support.
“We always want to make sure that we show our support for what they have going on at this facility,” said Chief Jason Bellaire. “It’s a great facility, great staff, and we do what we can to help them whenever they ask.”
“We're trying to operate in a way that is more consolidated with our partners and more collaborative in nature and we're still building that capacity and I think you're going see bigger things in the future from us and our health and human sector partners.”
