The members of Little Boxes – Plus have been hard at work during this busy holiday season.
The charity organization is located in Brantford and was established in September 2019.
The group is made up of roughly 16 volunteers and the women meet every Tuesday morning at Grace Anglican Church to create a variety of gift boxes, bookmarks, calendars and cards – but with a twist.
The organization accepts donations of greeting cards, card stock, unused envelopes and LANG calendars (a long and slim calendar) and upcycles them into something new.
“We try to recycle everything that we get,” said Jane Prince, a long-time member. “We make tags, Christmas trees and all kinds of different shape boxes. This year we started something new and we made an advent calendar book.”
When the items made by the group are sold, 100 per cent of the funds are donated. Since its creation, Little Boxes – Plus has contributed nearly $15,000 to several cancer care charities in the area, including Hankinson House Hospice. The group also created and donated over 200 mini handbag boxes for the Handbags for Hospice event.
“Our main objective is to support cancer care and all of our sales go directly to whoever we’re going to donating to at the time,” said Prince. “It’s not for research or anything else like that, it’s more for the comfort of a person who may need end-of-life care.”
Little Boxes – Plus items are sold within several shops across the city that act as outlets for the charity organization.
“We’ve got a few businesses around the city that are supporting us by putting our goods in their store and selling it for us,” said Prince. “They don’t take any money back out of it, they just strictly sell it so all of our proceeds can go to cancer care.”
Gift boxes and other goods can be purchased from: Donn Zver Pottery, Serenity Country Candles, Brantford Bookworm, Cheesecake On The Go, Keighley Jewelers, Classic Vault Emporium and Le Chocolat in Brantford.
Donations of greetings cards, card stock, unused envelopes and LANG calendars can be dropped off at any time at the Grace Anglican Church. The group is also looking for more volunteers to join in on the craft or to work some of the pop-up markets.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
