Winter Clothing Drive at Pembroke Campus Helping International Students

Posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2022

In early January, a campus nurse noticed a student walking across the Pembroke campus with very red ears; early signs of frostbite. She reached out to Ellen Gallant, Recruitment and Financial Aid Officer in the Community and Student Affairs Department in Pembroke, who quickly jumped into action.

“We realized our international students did not have clothes that were warm enough for the local cold weather, so we reached out to our local community asking for donations of warm clothes,” said Gallant. “We have had a great response. Students, staff and community members have donated jackets, socks, scarves, hats, gloves, mitts and snow pants. People have even donated knitted sweaters and other handmade items.”

Gallant set up a rack in the Student Commons with a “Take What You Need” sign. To date, she estimates at least 30 students from China and India have been outfitted with proper cold-weather gear. She believes the College has received over $3,000 in donations. “I actually had someone order socks from Amazon sent to me at the College as a donation. It’s been really rewarding.”

“As a smaller regional college campus, we don’t have the same community infrastructure that exists in larger urban centres, such as public transit,” said Jamie Bramburger, Manager, Student and Community Affairs, Pembroke Campus. “This means our international students often walk to campus and may have never experienced a Canadian winter. The winter clothing drive was a great example of caring by our employees to help ensure these students had warm clothing during what has been a very cold winter to date.”

Gallant has been refilling the empty racks once a week, as items are taken by students in need and more donations arrive.

She has received messages on social media and via text from people looking for specific items and sizes, which she is able to respond to, but the program is mostly anonymous and available to students without having to interact with staff.

“It’s similar to the food cupboard, in that and we don’t want people to feel uncomfortable,” said Gallant. “It is a come as you need. If students need a specific piece of winter clothing we find it for them.”

Since there continues to be a large donation of items, Gallant has reached out to a local immigration partnership, also run by Algonquin College, to let them know that if they have clients who need clothing, we can share what we have with others in the community.”

A heart-warming tale indeed.


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