The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Montreal Foundation looks back at their home donation campaign, launched a month ago to raise funds to support their youth mentoring programs.
Between spring cleaning and moving season, the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Montreal Foundation launched the Lâche le morceau campaign, an at-home clothing collection campaign that took place from June 25 to July 25. The objective was to raise funds to support the vision of providing professional mentoring services to as many young people as possible in the Greater Montreal area.
Jean Laberge, General Manager of the BBBS Foundation, explains: « The campaign was designed to demonstrate the simplicity of our collection service. By simply filling out an online form, an email is sent to you 2 weeks before each pickup date in your area. On the day of the pickup, all you have to do is leave your donations at the front door and your presence is not required! Moreover, knowing that a Canadian throws away an average of 37 kilograms of textiles per year, 95% of which can be reused, the Foundation is positioning itself as a major player in textile recycling here in Montreal, with 4.4 million kilograms of clothing collected last year. »
With the participation of he community, including BBBS ambassadors actress Elisabeth Locas and three-time Olympic medalist Marianne St-Gelais, more than 15,859 pounds of clothing were collected through home pickups during the campaign.
« Our organization focuses on helping young people in our community, who face personal or socio-economic barriers, to reach their full potential, » states Maxime Bergeron Laurencelle, Director of the BBBS Greater Montreal Agency. « This campaign encouraged society to give their clothes a second life, and at the same time fund our mentoring programs to reach as many youngsters as possible.
Although the campaign is over, the BBBS Foundation continues to offer its at-home clothing collection services throughout the year. Additional information on how to register for the collection service and where to find donation boxes is available here.