We collect donations of good used clothing, bedding and hand knit garments, layettes for babies, clothes and "hot socks for cold feet" to be collected into bales to be sent to Anglican parishes in the Diocese of Yukon. Any donations that we cannot find a use for are passed on, for example, to St James Community Service Society in the downtown eastside. Most demand is for toques and mitts, baby clothes and blankets.
We collect "freebies", such as Pop can tabs which sale of helps to train Guide dogs. Used stamps are prepared for sale, and support the Arthur Turner Training School in Iqaluit in the Arctic. Glasses are taken to Lenscrafters for use in the developing world.
United Thank Offerings: The United Thank Offering was designed to make our individual thankfulness more effective. The idea is that each member has a receptacle, sort of like a piggy bank, into which she deposits a coin each time she has a reason to be thankful. She then takes this to her branch meeting. Each branch collects these amounts and once a year remits them to the Diocesan Board. This can add up to a tidy sum to which the Board adds the interest earned from the term deposits it holds. This is then taken to the Annual General Meeting where the membership votes on which organizations to support in the current year. Some branches give their parish congregations the opportunity to contribute as well.
Offerings given at Area meetings during the year are donated to a local resource, often that of the speaker at the meeting. Branches also support projects as they are able.
Canadian Church Calendars can be ordered in the summer each year. Contact ACW Place for details.
We support the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, Camp Artaban, Mission to Seafarers, Covenant House (for young people aged 16-24 who have nowhere else to turn), BC/Alberta Guide Dogs, St. Jude's Anglican Home, West Side Mobile Care Unit, Urban Native Youth-Elder Mentor Programme and many others.
In addition we have been able to ensure the continuation of the Chaplaincy at Vancouver General Hospital, we have supplied needed winter clothing to children in the Territory of the People and Yukon, have funded a school meals programme in a Yukon school, have subsidized training in order to "train the trainers", and were able to supply the new Synod office with display cabinets to make the entrance area more interesting and welcoming.
We are always interested to learn of ways we can reach out to help - feel free to contact ACW Place with your suggestions.