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PHOTOS: Cloverdale’s Coldest Night of the Year charity walk raises $125K

Annual event sees more than 500 walkers take part

Cloverdale’s annual charity walk ascended to new fundraising heights this year.

“We had an amazing Coldest Night of the Year,” said Courtney van den Boogaard. “It was a huge success!”

Van den Boogaard and fellow organizers had hoped to raise $125,000, but seemed to come up short after the walk took place Feb. 22.

“At the end of the night on Saturday we had raised $120,800,” noted van den Boogaard, manager of communications for the Cloverdale Community Kitchen. “The next day a very generous donation of $4,200 came in from a member of Pacific Community Church so that we could meet our goal of $125,000.”

The annual march through the streets of Cloverdale is the Community Kitchen’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Last year CCK set a fundraising goal of $75,000, but eclipsed that by $20,000.

This year’s event saw 522 people participate as walkers and another 150 give their time as volunteers.

Cloverdale’s CNOY raised the fourth-highest amount of money for the 144 participating locations nationwide, only the Kitchener/Waterloo, Toronto, and St. Catherine’s locations raised more. Cloverdale also had the third-highest number of walkers — only two towns had more participants: Kitchener/Waterloo had 735 walkers and Orillia had 547 walkers.

Participating in his first charity walk, Walter van Halst said Cloverdale’s generosity was remarkable.

“The turnout was large and diverse,” van Halst said. “There was a very deep, positive sense of community the whole time. Many local businesses had teams taking part or sponsored the event.”

Both Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School and Salish Secondary School had teams at the event and MP Tamara Jansen attended, along with MLAs Marvin Hunt and Stephanie Cadieux.

“It was one of the best events, especially for such a good cause, that I have ever seen in Cloverdale,” explained van Halst.

“I am overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of our community,” added van den Boogaard. “It felt like a celebratory evening of everyone getting together in support of the hungry, hurting, and homeless in the community.”

SEE ALSO: Cloverdale’s annual walk for charity still looking for sponsors and participants

SEE ALSO: Cloverdale’s Coldest Night of the Year breaks fundraising record

CCK will use the money to fund community meals, an extreme weather shelter, a food club, and their donation truck.

Charity walks also took place in Whalley and White Rock. The White Rock walk raised more than $106,000 and the Whalley walk raised more than $23,000.

The Coldest Night of the Year is part of a nation-wide fundraising walk for homelessness. CNOY is held in towns and cities across Canada and has raised more than $21 million for charity since 2011.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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