Local Regina business owners rally together to support the community

Times are tough for some people this holiday season.

To help out, some local Regina business owners rallied together to get 100 bags filled with essential products that could be used by people in the community.

Michelle Strawford, owner of Bella Chic, said she wanted a reason to bring people together.

“I know that there’s such a need for helping people, especially those that are out of work,” Strawford said. “People struggle enough with regular life, but especially now with everything going on it’s so crushing to think about how hard this is on families that can’t be working right now or have other things going on in their life.

“I thought it was just a really great opportunity to bring businesses together to help people out emotionally, as well as make a difference in the community.”

Throughout November, almost 20 individuals and businesses gathered donations before finally coming together on Thursday to create 100 ‘blessing bags’.

These bags featured hygiene kits, decks of cards, non-perishable food items, face masks, winter clothes such as mitts and toques and more.  The bags were donated to two inner-city schools, allowing them to distribute the bags to whoever needs them.

Volunteers pose for a picture after preparing some of the 100 blessing bags. (Michelle Strawford/submitted.)

A local community offered their town hall for the project, allowing volunteers a large space to get to work and prepare the bags.

“The town of White City donated their Hall which was a huge help, everybody already knew to be wearing a mask, and the hall was set up with sanitizer,” she said. “We were very aware of how important it is to keep distance and all the things necessary to keep us safe, it wasn’t obviously as easy as it would be on a regular day, but it was more than doable.”

According to Strawford, she plans on doing something similar again in the future.

“Nothing feels better than doing something good with zero expectations in return, and this just felt like the right thing to do.”