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Whalley ‘Coldest Night’ walk for Surrey’s homeless raises $23K – so far

Volunteers estimated about 100 walkers
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A flood of toques: Walkers participating in the annual Coldest Night of the Year walk Saturday evening (Feb. 22) with their special toques for the event. (Photo: Lauren Collins)

More than $250,000 has been raised – so far – for Surrey and White Rock through the annual “Coldest Night of the Year” walks.

There were three walks in the area: Whalley, Cloverdale and White Rock.

The second-annual Whalley walk was just shy of its goal Wednesday morning (Feb. 26).

But people can still donate.

The Surrey-Whalley “Coldest Night of the Year” walk had raised $23,538 of its $25,000-goal. That’s about 94 per cent of its 2020 goal.

That number is up from 2019, which saw the inaugural Whalley walk raise more than $18,000.

People can still donate online at: cnoy.org/location/surreywhalley.

READ ALSO: ‘Coldest Night’ walk in Whalley aims to raise $25K, Feb. 19, 2020

Funds from the Whalley walk go toward the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Task Force and the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society.

The task force is a coalition of community organizations “working together to reduce and prevent homelessness in Surrey with a vision that everyone in Surrey is appropriately housed.”

The society, which has been operational for more than a decade, has “provided over $4 million in funding to Surrey organizations that work on ‘Made in Surrey’ solutions, assisting people experiencing homelessness and creating homes for those most vulnerable.”

Jonquil Hallgate, the co-chair of the task force, said that since the Whalley walk is only in its third year, it has “a little bit of catching up to do” with the other walks in Cloverdale and White Rock.

“But year three is going to do it.”

READ ALSO: Cloverdale’s Coldest Night of the Year charity walk raises $125K, Feb. 24, 2020

READ ALSO: White Rock’s Coldest Night event raises $106K, Feb. 24, 2020

The Cloverdale walk, which has been going on for several years raised $125,165, slightly surpassing its goal of $125,000. Cloverdale raised the fourth-highest amount of money out of the 144 locations throughout Canada.

The White Rock walk, now in its seventh year, raised $107,603 of its $107,000-goal.

According to CNOY’s website, there were walks in 144 locations across the country, made up of 3,571 teams.

The total fundraising goal is $6 million, and as of Tuesday afternoon it was at $5,855,686.



lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com

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Lauren Collins

About the Author: Lauren Collins

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media's national team, after my journalism career took me across B.C. since I was 19 years old.
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