It all started with campaign signs. Cowichan Valley Regional District area director Sierra Acton had a lot of them leftover from her re-election bid and wanted to recycle them with a purpose.
“So my kids and I took my old campaign signs and covered them with paper and painted big hearts on them and put them at a few of the intersections. So I think that was kind of percolating the idea, and that was to acknowledge our gratitude to the front line workers,” Acton said.
With the help of a few friends, the signs went from an art project to a fundraising campaign. The signs soon popped up in front yards around the Cowichan Valley. Sierra’s team decided that the money raised from the signs should go towards Nourish Cowichan, which normally provides breakfasts and lunches for school kids in need.
“Schools were cancelled, so we saw the need of kids who depended on a lunch program where they bring food to the school for the kids for lunch, so we knew of Nourish Cowichan. We didn’t know them well, but we wanted to support them because we knew that they were doing good work in the community,” Acton said.
Nourish Cowichan has now switched from providing school lunches and snacks to delivering over 300 food hampers a week to families in need, as well as healthcare workers. Rod Allen is a former School District 79 superintendent, and still works with Nourish Cowichan. Allen says that contributions like that of Sierra’s are what’s keeping the society going.
“It’s significant. We’re still sort of sorting out, we’ve been growing so fast week to week in terms of the numbers of hampers we put out. We’re still trying to calculate the cost of all that, but it’s significantly higher then it was on a weekly basis, and even more so. So a donation like this is life-saving,” Allen said.
Sierra’s heart campaign netted over $20,000 for Nourish Cowichan, which will go a long way towards helping those in need during these trying times.
Cole Sorenson
