Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Temperatures have begun to drop, serving as the perfect reminder that Napanee’s annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraising walk will be here before too long.
Registration is now open in advance of the Feb. 25 walk date.
Now in its fifth year, Coldest Night of the Year fundraisers take place in communities across Canada, encouraging participants to walk through their communities on a frigid winter night. The exercise serves as a stark reminder as to what homeless Canadians face on a nightly basis through the winter season. Participants gather pledges, which are donated to charities that serve people experiencing hurt, hunger or homelessness. In Napanee’s case, that money goes to Morningstar Mission’s warming centre.
“We wanted to come out of the gate early and give people lots of time to plan and anticipate and recruit some teammates and sometimes even build a team in some cases likes to challenge another team,” said Lynda Carney, who returns to organize the 2023 event.
Preparations are underway for the Feb. 25 event, which is tentatively scheduled to begin and end at Napanee’s Trinity United Church, following the same path as last year.
“Coldest Night of the Year has become the signature fundraising event for Morningstar Mission,” said Carney. “We’re super excited that this is our fifth annual so we’re celebrating that. The money that is raised through the generosity of corporate sponsors, the donors and the walkers themselves will all come together to support our meal programs and homelessness initiatives and of course that includes and focuses on the warming centre. These monies are pertinent to Morningstar being able to operate and do what we do every day.”
Registration can be done now at the event’s page, https://cnoy.org/location/napanee?fbclid=IwAR31Z_KSYBuOWRNcIsSnLd66z0RUWSVFAC7a52uu_U8CxRB_anc66N0gCfA.
After raising $81,000 last year, organizers have raised the bar to $100,000 for 2023.
“We believe the community can and will support that because they always support Morningstar in suck a tangible way so we know that we can reach $100,000 with the help of our community, our walkers, our corporate sponsors in the area and we’re really excited about it,” said Carney.