A generous donation of 700 personal hygiene kits for Wildfire evacuees was given by United Way in Williams Lake.
Ashley Hyde, Manager of Resource and Community Development, said the process actually started last year when her group was asked to do a little bit of donation management and work with Emergency Management EC to get donations to all of the evacuees in the Cariboo that were affected by last summer’s Wildfires.
Hyde said “This year we just stepped up to the plate and I was asked to reach out to some of my contacts from last year and provide some personal hygiene kits for the evacuees we were expecting to come in from Fort St James”
The help came from a program called “Soap For Hope” through Disaster Aid Canada, but the work didn’t end there.
“Some kits were pre-made and put together, Hyde said, “some kits we put together so the Williams Lake chamber of commerce allowed us to use their space and their employees. We also had some volunteers show up and we just blew through all 700”.
The personal hygiene items arrived in totes to Williams Lake on Saturday from the Lower Mainland and were all bagged by Sunday.
Hyde said not all of the 700 kits stayed in Williams Lake as some were sent to the 100 Mile House ESS Centre as well.