A Huntsville charity has set a lofty goal for its biggest fundraiser of the year.
The annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser is set for Feb. 25 and supports The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation in Huntsville. Participants will raise money for the “hungry, hurting, and homeless” by walking either two or five kilometres. This year’s fundraising goal is $100,000.
Heather Cassie, president of The Table, says after they got nearly one-and-a-half times their goal in 2022, they’re feeling pretty good about this year.
“We believe that we can reach it,” says Cassie. “We have an amazing community, and if we could reach the goal and go beyond last year, we thought that $100,000 was quite doable. We have a lot of people already engaged and very excited to raise funds with us. And the more we raise, the more we can help our community together.”
Aside from keeping their food bank stocked, Cassie says this year’s funds are needed for significant repairs and renovations to its building. She says that includes fixing leaks in the roof, righting the property’s drainage, and making several accessibility improvements.
“We have a lot of renovations that we need to do in order to serve our community better,” says Cassie. “The reason why the goal is $100,000 is because we need to focus some of our funding on doing this renovation, and also to expand our services.”
According to Cassie, Coldest Night is The Table’s signature fundraiser, as well as the only one they’ve been able to rely on since COVID-19 started.
“We’ve been able to rely on this one event, even through the last three years of difficulty where all of our fundraisers were cancelled,” says Cassie. “We know we’ve got the engagement of our community, the interest to do this, and we can rely on this funding to come in. It’s something that is in our budget year in, year out. It’s a successful event and makes a huge impact on the rest of the year for us.”
You can sign up for, or donate to The Table’s walk at the event’s website. The fundraiser will also run in Gravenhurst, supporting Gravenhurst Against Poverty.