{"id":34238,"date":"2024-02-16T13:35:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T18:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34238"},"modified":"2024-02-16T13:35:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T18:35:18","slug":"coldest-night-of-the-year-will-help-raise-funds-awareness-for-unhoused-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/coldest-night-of-the-year-will-help-raise-funds-awareness-for-unhoused-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Coldest Night of the Year will help raise funds, awareness for unhoused, services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Residents of our communities are preparing to dress in their warmest garments and hit the streets this month for the Coldest Night of the Year, an annual event designed to raise funds for and awareness of local programs that give a helping hand to the unhoused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) events have always had a tremendous buy-in from participants, with the affordability crisis continuing unabated, the importance of initiatives like these cannot be understated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locally, this year\u2019s walks will take place on February 24 and include events in Newmarket hosted by Inn from the Cold and by Blue Door Shelter in Richmond Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor many, winter might be layering up, skiing, shovelling snow or running inside to escape the bitter cold,\u201d says Michael Braithwaite, CEO of Blue Door. \u201cFor far too many, winter means trying to find shelter from the freezing cold on an empty stomach, without warm enough clothing to face the elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt Blue Door, we are working hard so that everyone has a safe place to call home, even if it is just for one night. Our Coldest Night of the Year event on February 24 is a chance for our community to come together, to raise funds and walk in solidarity to support Blue Door\u2019s various programs and initiatives moving forward. This year our goal is to raise $150,000 and we can\u2019t do it without your support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Richmond Hill event begins at 4 p.m. at Toronto Montessori School\u2019s Lower Campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inn from the Cold\u2019s CNOY event will take place at Newmarket\u2019s Riverwalk Commons, with gates opening at 4.30 p.m. for a 5 p.m. start. This year, they\u2019ve set a fundraising goal of $90,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our biggest fundraiser of the year,\u201d says Wayne Ford, Chair of the Inn from the Cold Board. \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting about it is who participates. It\u2019s really family and friends, but we\u2019ve got volunteers and staff, and we even have our clients who come in to support the walk every year. It really is a community event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in its twelfth year, Ford says what makes CNOY endure are the volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis week is when team captains really start to push their teams for donations,\u201d he says. \u201cLast week we were around 65 per cent (towards our goal) wondering if we were going to make our goal. This week, we topped over 86 per cent \u2013 we have 277 walkers, 58 teams, and I think that speaks to the community support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That support, he adds, has only been bolstered by the affordability crisis and how top-of-mind housing has been in the last few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundraising numbers and, of course, participation, has \u201creally gone up\u201d over the last three years, Ford notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHomelessness has grown and\u2026we provide a place for the homeless to go so they are not out wandering the streets,\u201d he says, adding that funds raised by Inn from the Cold this year will go primarily towards food and shelter supports. \u201cBecause we provide that service, you don\u2019t see as many homeless people in the Newmarket-Aurora area. If we are not providing that service, you would see a much more visible homeless community in the area. Even though we do provide these services, there are still a number of tent communities that operate in this area. It\u2019s a much bigger problem, but it\u2019s not as visible because we\u2019re providing this service to the housing community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Inn from the Cold\u2019s Coldest Night of the Year event in Newmarket, including how to participate or support an individual or team, visit cnoy.org\/location\/newmarket<\/a>. Further information on the Richmond Hill event hosted by Blue Door can be found at cnoy.org\/location\/richmondhill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of our communities are preparing to dress in their warmest garments and hit the streets this month for the Coldest Night of the Year, an annual event designed to raise funds for and awareness of local programs that give a helping hand to the unhoused. While Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) events have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024-02-16-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Ue","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 13:14:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}