For the seventh year in a row, Algonquin Outfitters (AO) and the Huntsville community have stepped up to help keep families in need warm this winter.
Each November, the company runs a coat drive in support of local organizations, encouraging their customers to donate warm, washed and wearable jackets and snow pants at one of four AO stores: Huntsville, Bracebridge, Oxtongue Lake and Haliburton. All of the donations in Muskoka this year, about 60 items, went to The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation’s Exchange Store where families in need can pick them up for free. In Haliburton, they go to SIRCH Community Services for distribution. In exchange for the donation, AO offers a $50 gift card if customers also buy a new jacket, but many customers just bring in their old coats with no expectation of a return.
“It’s just amazing, the community we have,” says Barb Stronach, The Table’s food bank manager. “We do get clothing donations, but not on a scale like (what AO does).”
Many of the coats are great quality, ensuring they will last more than one season—past donations of durable kids’ clothing will often make their way back to the Exchange Store when they are outgrown so that they can help someone else out.
“We are about community,” says Rich Swift, who owns AO with his wife Sue. “Algonquin Outfitters is entrenched in this community and we always will be. We embrace our traditional roots; that’s what got us to here. And we are very community-minded as a result.”
Every December, AO also sponsors one or two families from The Table—this year it’s two—and their customers help out with that, as well. Until the end of this week, if you make a donation to The Table at AO’s Huntsville store, AO will pay the tax on your purchase of clothing or footwear.
“We have no idea who it goes to,” says Swift, “but it’s just knowing that you’ve really helped somebody.”
AO’s giving doesn’t stop at Huntsville’s borders. The 14 Algonquin Outfitters stores across Muskoka provide similar help in their local areas, donating to local charities or sponsoring local events.
“This is just one of the projects we do throughout the year,” says Randy Mitson, AO’s marketing director. “It’s great because it’s Christmas time and it’s supporting people in need, but we also do many other things.”
The Table is grateful for their support and for that of the community at large.
The donated jackets are available through the Exchange Store at The Table. The organization is also holding a toy giveaway today and tomorrow for parents who have pre-registered to come in and ‘shop’ for their kids. And on Thursday, December 20 from 4-7 p.m. is kids’ night where children can find presents for their parents. Volunteer wrappers will get their choices ready to take home for Christmas morning.
“What we do is all grassroots. It’s all volunteers and all donations,” says Stronach. “Any money we get we use to buy food—we can get a bigger bang for our buck through different sources—and to keep the lights on. And a lot of the donations we are getting now we can parlay into the spring and maybe even the summer. The community is so generous to us. It’s just amazing the community we have.”
The organization also has other holiday offerings. Two of their weekly dinners at Trinity United Church fall on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve this year. The dinners are open to everyone who needs or wants a meal, or who would like a social outing. Stronach says that they are seeing an increase in the number of seniors who join them for dinner.
Read more about The Table’s volunteers in a Doppler story here. For more information about The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation, visit
thetablefoundation.ca.
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Ginger Barkey says
Excellent community support – thanks to Rich, Sue and the team at AO for your contribution!