Sault Ste. Marie Helping Hands had some good news to celebrate during its annual community barbecue and yard sale on Saturday.
Not only is the organization on the road to recovery financially after a break-in and theft at its charitable thrift store last week, it’s also the recipient of a grant worth more than $39,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Sault MPP Chris Scott joined Helping Hands president and chair Robert Peace at Helping Hands Thrift on Wellington St. W to announce the provincial funding, which is earmarked to support community and volunteer-led organizations across Ontario.
“This has enabled us to have a full-time person who can help coordinate the volunteers when they come in, and help deal with the people that are coming and going every day at the front entrance,” Peace told SooToday following the announcement.
“If you don't have a continuous person — if it were a different person every day — it would be impossible to run this.”
Scott said he’s “excited to see how things grow from here,” with Helping Hands, which is a registered charity.
“I think it's a good story to tell, and especially taking the opportunity while they're having the yard sale to do that,” he added.
Peace also applauded members of the community who have helped the organization recover financially after its thrift store was broken into last weekend, resulting in a number of items being taken, including a lawnmower, a laptop and an electronic point-of-sale (POS) cash register system.
So far, about $5,000 has been raised through a GoFundMe campaign and donations from individuals in the community. Peace said the donations received will enable Helping Hands to replace everything that was lost in the break-in, with the exception of the POS system.
“We’ve recouped everything that we lost — and we did it within a week,” Peace said.
More information on Sault Ste. Marie Helping Hands can be found on the organization’s website.