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Kindness Campaign

Meadow Lake businesses unite for community-wide kindness campaign

Jan 25, 2021 | 5:44 PM

Businesses and organizations in Meadow Lake have joined forces to bring two popular February campaigns promoting kindness into the community.

Eatery on Main and other local businesses have launched an initiative to promote Random Acts of Kindness and Pink Shirt Day throughout the month and create a positive change in the community. Over the next two weeks, Eatery on Main will sell pink shirts to the public and collect donations with the intent of redistributing the money to local organizations and non-profits in the community.

Adult male and female shirts are priced at $20 while youth shirts are set at $18. Ten dollars from each shirt will be put into a fund that will be distributed among schools and local organizations. The goal is to collect at least $4,000 for the community. All shirt orders will need to be placed by the February 4 deadline. People will be contacted once their order has arrived.

Kassidy Dunsing, owner/operator of Eatery on Main, said she originally wanted to participate in the Pink Shirt Day campaign by selling shirts from her business, but felt inspired to make a bigger contribution to the community. Dunsing said she received significant interest in the drive after she reached out to other local businesses to see if they would like to join the cause.

Dunsing said more than 12 sponsors have helped fund the order of 300 pink shirts, and that if the demand exceeds the supply, there are additional businesses that could assist in completing the additional orders. She added there is still room for additional businesses to join the cause if they would like to contribute prize packs and rewards as a random acts of kindness campaign is tied to the initiative.

“We’ve challenged the schools, non-profits, the hospital and the clinic to get into the community, do something kind and nominate people who are doing random acts of kindness. We’re really trying to spread as much kindness as we can because of the recent crime and gang activity going on,” Dunsing said.

“The biggest thing is that the more people that participate, the community can feed off of that. If more businesses are getting involved, posting on social media and sharing, it’s going to have a domino effect and everyone is going to see that, everyone is going to join in and we’re going to have all of the businesses on Main Street running around the city doing nice things for each other.”

The campaign is accepting nominations for people and organizations that offer acts of kindness and make an effort to create a positive change in the community. Nomination forms will be available through Eatery on Main until February 4. Nominees will be entered into a draw to win prizes and rewards while being acknowledged by the community.

Dunsing said the cause received a lot of support; the community is very familiar with supporting others.

“What I’ve learned about the community in Meadow Lake is that there are so many people that want to get involved and help in this community,” she said.

Random Acts of Kindness Day falls on February 17, and Pink Shirt Day take place February 24.

Elliott.Knopp@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ElliottKnopp

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