Their company slogan is “keeping our community warm.”
So it just made sense for Ladysmith Duncan Plumbing and Heating to become the new home of the Coats for Kids program in Ladysmith after Grant Jewellers closed this fall.
Ladysmith Duncan Plumbing and Heating has offered its space at 810 Esplanade across from Subway as a donation drop-off and pick-up location since Nov. 13.
“I knew Nita Grant had started Coats for Kids and that the drop off and pick up was at Grant Jewellers, and it was closing, and I thought we’ve got a great location, we have space in our showroom, and it goes with our slogan ‘keeping our community warm,’” said Camille Soer, whose family owns Ladysmith Duncan Plumbing and Heating. “We certainly like to give back to our community and do what we can. It seemed like a natural to us.”
The program provides coats, hats, gloves, mittens and scarves for young children, older children, teenagers and adults.
“We have some amazing donations from these women who knit all year,” said Soer. “We have baskets full of new mittens for two-, four- and six-year-olds all in different colours. It’s quite nice to see. It’s quite something, the donations that come in. It really gives you goosebumps, the generosity people have — and the people who are in need, they never take more than they need.”
Soer says they currently have so many coats that they need a new coat rack, and she encourages anyone who needs a coat to come down and pick one up and to spread the word among their friends and neighbours.
Ladysmith Duncan Plumbing and Heating is open for drop off and pick up Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Dec. 21.
Soer recently moved back to Ladysmith from the Mainland and joined her family business.
Her parents have run Ladysmith Duncan Plumbing and Heating for 20 years, and when her mother told her about the Coats for Kids program and that Grant Jewellers was closing, Soer “jumped on it.”
“It’s our way of getting involved in the community,” she said. “It’s a very nice program. There’s nothing too specific to it — if you have coats to donate, you drop them off, and if you need a coat, you can pick one up.”
Donations of used coats can also be dropped off at the Ladysmith Resources Centre Association at 630 Second Ave.