Social work students at the First Nations University of Canada Northern campus held a warm clothing drive outside the school grounds Thursday afternoon, providing food and donated items to those in need.
“We had people bringing in donations of coats, blankets, mittens, bags for our vulnerable community to be warm this winter,” said Nicole Matheis, a student part of the program and volunteer of the drive.
The First Nations University (FNUniv) is an Indigenous-owned and governed post-secondary education institution in the province that integrates traditional Indigenous knowledge with academic higher learning.
For the drive, the community responded by donating warm jackets, sweaters, pants, blankets, and other essentials needed as the weather begins to cool.
“Our goal for today is to bring warmth and dignity and comfort to our vulnerable community. We’re all indigenous social work students, and so we’re going to be working in the community, so this was a great opportunity to just give back to the community,” said Matheis.
Additionally, she said that being able to help and support the community has been an informative experience.
“We’re able to really learn firsthand what’s going on in our community and just be part of something bigger,” she said.
Alongside clothes, the volunteers provided free food and drinks, serving hot dogs, coffee, hot chocolate, water, and snacks.
“The kindness and just the warmth that is in our community—everyone has just been so thankful and so grateful and just. It’s been fun to chat and to get to know the people in our community and, yeah, it’s just been a lot of fun,” Matheis said.
Matheis hoped the drive will inspire the community to help those who are in need.
“I think just opening your heart and knowing that our winters are cold and having this be something that was fairly simple to set up,” she said. “We just had people bringing in some donated blankets and coats—something so small that turned into something so big and beautiful for our community.”
Furthermore, she hopes that not only does the university continue their outreach work, but other local community members also join in.
“I’d love for this to inspire the community to put on more things like this. Get involved. There’s so many wonderful organizations in our community that are looking for volunteers,” said Matheis. “I’ve been working in the community for the past 10 years, and I’ve just decided to go back and finish up my indigenous social work so that I can better know and better understand how to help out in our community, and I think that there’s so many opportunities that people maybe don’t even know about.”
