When Ladner's Lyndsey Funk decided to start a clothing drive for a Downtown Eastside women's shelter, she had no idea the kind of response she would get from the community.
Currently home on maternity leave, Funk said she decided back in October that she had time to organize a clothing drive.
"I posted a message on a couple of local South Delta swap sites," she said in an email to the Optimist.
She simply posted that she was collecting donations for the DTES Women's Center and any donations could be dropped off at her house.
"That very night I opened the front door and found the entire front area of my house crowded with boxes and bags of donations," she said. "And that's pretty much the way it has been since then."
Funk said since putting out the call, she and husband Charles have delivered 240 boxes, which amounted to seven carloads, of donations and there is still more to go.
"The wonderful people of this community have seriously made an impact in a lot of very grateful people's lives," she said.
The family has received so many donations that Funk made the decision to branch out from her original plan and started helping out mommy and baby/family organizations.
Funk said she and Charles have spent many an hour sorting donations and labeling boxes before taking them into the city. She said her husband has been in charge of making all the deliveries and, being a man, was not so well received the first time he walked into the women's centre.
"But the last few times he has gone he has been greeted with hugs and a whole lot of gratitude," Funk said.
So far, the couple has delivered more than 100 pairs of kids shoes, 45 boxes of clothes, 20 boxes of blankets and towels, 18 boxes of toiletries, five boxes of bras, as well as boxes of diapers, baby bottles, formula, maternity clothes, baby toys, and a nearly brand new stroller and car seat.
"I really had no initial goal when I put the call out for donations, just thought everyone could use a pre-Christmas purge," Funk said.
