Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Walkers are once again being challenged to brave the frigid winter weather on Feb. 26 for Morningstar Mission during the annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser.
Held in cities across Canada, CNOY is intended to raise awareness for the homeless, inviting people to take a stroll in February to remind participants just how uncomfortable it can be outside on a winter’s night.
In previous years the walk has been a group event, starting at Trinity United Church in Napanee and looping through the downtown core. Last year however it moved to a virtual, socially distanced event with teams taking part in small groups.
“The hope is that if things are good we can do the route in town,” said Bradley Youmans, organizer of the local CNOY for Morningstar. “If things aren’t and the (COVID-19) numbers don’t look so good or there’s different mandates or whatever is happening with that then we would just continue to do the virtual again. Some people like having the virtual option now, they can walk at their leisure or at their location and not necessarily have to come into Napanee to do that.”
Walkers are encouraged to collect pledges from friends and family with money going to a local charity that helps the homeless. In the case of Greater Napanee’s walk it’ll go towards the Morningstar Mission’s warming centre and other programs.
“We were able to get funding for the warming centre this year and it’s being well used right now, as well as our other programs which we’ve seen an increase in,” said Youmans. “Since COVID started we’re continually sending out over 1,100 meals a week. We have our clothing program so people can come pick up clothes, our furniture program and we’ve extended it to the warming centre now, we also have the food bank. These are all programs where we’re seeing an increase across the board in its usage.”
Napanee’s CNOY has set a goal of $60,000. Last year’s event brought in over $61,000, more than doubling its original goal of $30,000.
To register for this year’s event, go to https://cnoy.org/location/napanee. A decision on whether or not it’ll be an in-person walk or a virtual event will be announced on the Morningstar Mission’s Facebook page in the days ahead of the walk.
First launched in 2011, last year’s CNOY saw nearly 25,000 people take part across Canada, raising more than $9.3 million.