Wood’s Homes in Lethbridge is celebrating a special partnership that will help support the non-profits Emergency Youth Shelter.
Local plumbing, heating and air conditioning business Charlton & Hill Home Services is helping with funding to keep the shelter open during weekend hours.
President and owner of the local business, Dan Friesen, says at last fall’s Never Give Up Gala for Wood’s Homes, he discovered that the non-profit was unable to operate the shelter on Saturdays and Sundays due to a lack of staff and necessary funding. This inspired him and his team to jump in and help.
In the first six months of the partnership between Wood’s Homes and Charlton & Hill, the weekend hours at the shelter have seen a combined 644 hours of daytime use, with 122 visits by 23 young people.
“What was happening prior to our involvement was, they were just told, ‘sorry, we don’t have anybody 8 [a.m.] to 5 [p.m.] on Saturdays and Sundays’, and that just seemed like such a big gap,” Friesen remarks.
“This ability for us now to have those hours open on the weekend is having a true impact on human beings and that’s all we asked for. That’s all we wanted.”
Friesen adds the teens are “now able to stay in the shelter, be supported, safe and around people that care about them deeply.”
He says Charlton & Hill is inviting the community to become involved.
The company has put Wood’s Home branding on an entire side of one of its vans. That branding features a QR code that people can scan. It takes you to a donation page for Wood’s Homes through the Charlton & Hill website.
“Charlton & Hill Home Services is about home services. We truly are about families and homes, so all the charities we support are along that vein,” Friesen says, adding that Wood’s Homes has always been “near and dear” to the heart of his company.
“[We] truly care about taking care of families in the community. That’s how we treat our staff here and we like to extend that support outside of the walls of our building.”
In addition to the vehicle branding and donation page on their website, Friesen says Charlton & Hill is allowing those doing business with the company “to take a certain percentage of their bill off their bill [and] donate it directly to Wood’s Homes”.
“We’re going to give them a discount in-kind, so that’s going on in July.”
The goal is to raise a minimum of $30,000 toward the youth shelter at Wood’s Homes this year. Donations can be made through the Charlton & Hill website.
