It was an unusual way to start a new event.

The annual Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) walk is a first for the Center. Begun in 2011 in two locations (Toronto and Kitchener/Waterloo), the event formed with the idea of walking in the cold in order to get a hint of what it might be like to experience homeless in Canada.

In a year where COVID-19 has changed fundraising in many ways; banquets cancelled, gatherings limited and other measures, adopting the CNOY was a way for the Center to continue its mission safely.

Nathan Wiebe - Executive Director of the Center in Swift CurrentNathan Wiebe is the Executive Director of the Center.

"We had 98 walkers and 20 teams. and if you look at the numbers I think currently 430 or just under 430 donations have been made. So there's been a lot of traffic; a lot of people asking questions about what it is. So yeah, it's been a good conversation to have. And the Coldest Night of the Year is very much lined up with our mandate to work with the homeless and the hungry and the hurting in our community."

Changes were inevitable, of course. Rather than large groups walking in two different routes, a 2-kilometre route and a longer 5-kilometre route, a virtual event meant more options and more routes for smaller groups of participants in order to encourage social distancing, as well as options to complete the walk at any time in February rather than only on the date of the event.

This year they also cancelled the registration fee, allowing anyone to participate at no upfront cost.

While Wiebe said that it would have been nice to have the big event, keeping it smaller had its advantages; allowing them to get accustomed to the event.

"We're happy with the result. It would have been nice to have a big event and do it like that. But it's been good that way. We can kind of get to know the event and it's been nice to connect with the community. And it's one of those things where, yeah, we're still open. We're still doing things. We're still very busy, so we have to continue to fundraise. We can't have a year like we did last year and expect to continue to grow."

He added that the Center typically has to fundraise anywhere from 120 to 200 thousand dollars per year, with the rest coming from various grants, government funding and other resources, citing the United Way and the South Saskatchewan Community Fund as an example.

Much of that fundraising goes to their counselling services, but also a general fund for other emergencies, such as what happened when COVID-19 hit the province and shut much of what they did down.

"So if you look at the pandemic one thing that we did was instead of shutting down completely we had an emergency meal program. So whenever you run into those situations to have a general fund where you can utilize those funds to assist people and to make an impact in that way when we normally would be plugging some of that money into our Friday and Saturday nights where we're using it now to try to positively impact families in need."

With the success of the walk, Wiebe said that they don't have a specific fundraising plan for what's next, except to say that they're always exploring those options. His focus, for the time being, is making sure that their counselling service is known, and that involves a lot of outreach and trying to connect with like-minded people.

"We want to make sure our energy and our effort is being put towards being proactive in the community. Reaching out to people, connecting with businesses. And just making sure that we're just living up to what we're saying and our mission and our vision. We're here to make a positive influence on youth and to create a safe and fun space for them. Even during the pandemic that's our primary goal."