Around 150 people joined the thousands of Canadians across the country as they participated in the annual Coldest Night of the Year walk, hosted by Why Not City Missions, on Saturday, February 22, 2025.
The walk has been running locally for about 15 years and is a chance to both spread awareness, and reduce youth homelessness within the Brantford-Brant community.
Individuals and teams alike, gathered inside the Mohawk Park pavilion to check-in, grab a Coldest Night of the Year toque and button, and listen to a few words from local dignitaries.
“Homelessness issues are not unique to this jurisdiction; I have traveled the country as part of my mandate to educate the public on how to improve community safety, and I’ve toured a number of homeless encampments, food banks and organizations that are trying to help as best they can. The number one thing I’m hearing is they need money,” said Larry Brock, MP for Brantford-Brant. “It’s not simply an issue of municipal donations and provincial donations, it’s all levels of government working together once and for all to try to put an end to home insecurity. It’s a real challenge, but it’s something that all levels of government must make a priority and starting right here, right now with this volunteer base, I want to thank you sincerely, from the bottom of my heart for all that you’re doing for our community to raise the necessary funds for Why Not.”
Will Bouma, the incumbent MPP for Brantford-Brant, who invited the MPP Liberal candidate, Ron Fox, to say a few greetings as well, then took to the microphone.
“I look around the room and it’s so full here,” said Bouma. “This is awesome and it’s such a testament to what our community is all about; everyone with different points of view, coming together, celebrating what we have, and giving to those who need it most.”
Before the walkers set out on either their 2 km or 5 km walk, Karen Stewart, executive director for Why Not City Missions, took the opportunity to thank team leaders who helped raise funds for the event, including Amanda Roorda of the Skyline Brantford team who raised $17,129, as well the Your Neighbourhood Credit Union Brantford & Paris team who raised $4,895, and Phil Gillies and Bouma’s team, which raised over $3,663.
Given that this event is Why Not’s major fundraiser, this year’s fundraising goal is $55,000 and funds raised from the event will ultimately go towards supporting all of the Why Not City Missions programming.
“This is one of our big fundraisers and all the money gets put into our general pot, and then that gets dispersed amongst all our programs,” said Karen Stewart, executive director of Why Not City Missions. “We have three programs on the go, which are the Youth Centre, Charlie’s Place for young men and then SHYP, which is Supportive Housing for Young Parents. So all of the money from today will go to supporting all three of those.”
Stewart said that when it comes down to it, the organization’s overall mission is simple.
“Basically, we seek to help youth thrive, and so we do that through relationship building. First and foremost, we want our youth to feel seen and heard and know that they are cared for and loved by their community,” said Stewart. “From there, we actually start to get to know what their needs are, and then we help meet them whether that’s food, schooling, connecting them to our mental health counsellor or just helping them get ID. Basically, we will do whatever the youth need, and if we can’t do it, then we connect them to the resources that do and then we will walk with them to make those connections happen.”
Later, as everyone returned from their walks, Why Not City Missions staff and volunteers helped serve up fresh bowls of chilli, both regular and vegan, with a bun, as well as coffee and hot chocolate.
Juanita Van Berkel, Jodie Hart and Hilary Vonk, who make up the team the Sole Sisters, were the first to arrive back from their 5 km walk.
The three, who raised $850 have been participating in the annual walk for around 12 years now, said they return each year for two reasons; one, because they love to walk, and two, because they love getting to support Why Not.
“It’s also always held at a nice time of day so it’s not eating into your evening and then it’s also easy to get sponsors with the way the online platform is set up,” said Hart.
“It’s just a great function, the atmosphere is great, and it’s really a wonderful cause,” added Van Berkel.
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.
