The Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) event has raised about $136,000 to support Grey Bruce organizations over the weekend, while raising awareness of those in need.
In this annual event held across Canada on Feb. 25, Safe ‘N Sound Grey Bruce Executive Director Annette Pedlar says their event in Owen Sound raised almost $60,000 for the organization.
“It was awesome we had over 200 walkers attend,” says Pedlar. “It was really encouraging to see so many members of the community come out.”
Pedlar says walkers took different routes but mainly stuck to the downtown area, finishing at the Farmers’ Market where dinner was provided.
She says the CNOY has many aspects to it, with the funds raised going towards their operational costs.
“It is about raising awareness in the community, I know that homelessness and housing is gaining a lot of traction in our understanding of it being an issue in our community, but there still is a lot of misinformation out there that we need to address, a piece of it is definitely trying to educate everybody that this is an important issue within our community. Also Safe ‘N Sound relies primarily on donations to stay open, and it is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” says Pedlar.
Owen Sound Police also posted on Twitter they joined residents for the walk.
#CNOY2023 On Sat. we walked to help raise money for our community. Local charities do amazing work helping those who are experiencing hurt, hunger & homelessness. A great event walking with our citizens & #CommunityPartners. @ChiefAmbroseOSP @JFluneyOSPS @Insp_DBishop @OSPApres pic.twitter.com/AUjtKtkPDq
— OwenSoundPolice (@OwenSoundPolice) February 26, 2023
Meanwhile, United Way of Bruce Grey held two CNOY walks for the first time in Saugeen Shores and Kincardine this year.
Fundraising Champion Kristy Andre says walk in Saugeen Shores, which had 209 walkers, raised over $52,000, while the walk in Kincardine raised over $24,000, and had 124 participants.
Kincardine CNOY Walk (Photo provided by Kristy Andre)
“We are ecstatic with the results from both events. We didn’t really have any expectations, just because they are first time events, but if we did, they would have been exceeded. This was just amazing to see both of those communities get together the way they did to show their support for people who need help with finding food, shelter, and mental health supports. It was just really great to see everyone coming together for the events and showing their understanding that there needs to be more help,” says Andre.
The funds raised in the Saugeen Shores walk will go to the United Way, while the Kincardine funds will be split between the organization and the Kincardine Good Food Box.
Andre says they also received support and donations from local businesses, including Bruce Power who made a $5,000 donation to the Saugeen Shores walk.
“There are no words, we are just so excited about the outcome of these events and we are talking about expanding in 2024, there might be another location in Grey Bruce that we target for the CNOY walk,” says Andre.
While Andre did not share which locations they are looking to expand to as of yet, she says they do have a few locations in mind.
She adds they expect to see the final totals from the walks around the beginning of April.