Truck loads of donations to Princeton emergency flood relief are for up grabs this Saturday, Jan. 29, at Vermilion Forks Elementary School, across from Princeton General Hospital.
Household items, books, toys, dishes, kitchen supplies and likely some clothes and bedding will all be given away for free, starting at 9 a.m.
“Anyone can come and take anything that was donated,” said Rhianfa Riel, who organized the Baptist Church’s food bank emergency flood response.
“There’s everything but the kitchen sink…but actually I think I saw one of those at one point.”
The church and its food bank were overwhelmed with donations in the wake of the flood, and in some cases volunteers were forced to turn away items as there was no room to store them.
Boxes of food and bags of clothes were packed throughout the church, in three C-Cans in the parking lot, in the arena, at Riverside Centre, and furniture was stored at the fairgrounds.
“So many generous people just came and dropped things off for us, that we couldn’t even keep track of what we were receiving,” Riel said.
The church diverted as much of the excess as possible to Merritt, a city also crippled by flood waters.
There are further plans to donate some of the leftover clothing and other necessities to homeless shelters.
Additionally, the food bank is holding back some donations of personal items like soap and toothbrushes, in order to create “emergency kits” for the next crisis. “Because we know there is going to be one.”
Riel called the response to the flood “mind-blowing…We are three months in and we still have no shortage of volunteers, and we have no shortage of people wanting to give us things.”
The food bank will continue to receive and distribute furniture, one day a week, for the coming months.
Related: Baptist Church is the hub of helping during Princeton’s flood crisis
Related:Vancouver Canucks donate $250,000 to Princeton flood victims
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:andrea.demeer@similkameenspotlight.com
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