Medical and dental students from the University of Alberta put down their books for the afternoon and picked up some gently used winter clothing for the Youth Emergency Shelter Society (YESS).
“We chose YESS as our humanitarian project for our class and they need funds. But when it starts to get cold, they need clothes too,” said Danielle Tingley, a dental student and one of the organizers.
“We want to be good role models for these youth. We’re trying to do what we can.”
Sue Keating, acting director for YESS, said she only heard about the clothing drive recently.
“It was a huge surprise,” she said.
“They’ve done all the planning and all the organizing and we just have to stand back and be ready to accept the donation.”
Keating said efforts like this tend to start happening this time of year.
“We’ll get a call out of the blue from someone who is thinking about our kids,” she said.
“There are a million different things that people do (for YESS) around this time of year. I walk around with tears in my eyes because the community is so behind these kids.”
