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Pack a shoebox for a woman in need in Campbell River this holiday season

Alison Skrepneck came across The Shoebox Project on Canada AM four years ago and decided she should bring it to Campbell River.
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The Shoebox Project volunteers collect shoeboxes for women in vulnerable situations in Campbell River. The volunteers deliver them to agencies around town including the North Island Transition Society.

Alison Skrepneck came across The Shoebox Project on Canada AM four years ago and decided she should bring it to Campbell River. This years drive started Nov. 12 and Skrepneck is accepting shoeboxes until Dec. 2.

The project distributes shoeboxes with $50 worth of gifts to vulnerable women in the community.

The gifts inside the shoeboxes can be anything from necessities likes shampoo and deodorant to small luxuries like nail polish or candies.

“We just ask people to put in things that they would enjoy,” Skrepneck said.

The first year she worked only with the North Island Transition Society, as the Shoebox Project was originally intended to distribute gifts to homeless or at risk women.

But now it has grown to include other organizations in town that work with vulnerable women. Some who spend any extra money they have on their children and never on themselves.

The response in the community has been amazing.

“We have gone over our goal each year,” Skrepneck said.

The goal is determined by the agencies Skrepneck works with. She contacts each one early in the fall and asks how many shoeboxes they think they will need.

Skrepneck then goes through each box to make sure there is not alcohol or razors and that everything is nut free. She and other volunteers decorate the boxes and then take them to the agencies who then distribute them.

Last year Skrepneck was invited to a luncheon where the shoeboxes were handed out.

She said it was wonderful to be a part of and to see the positive responses from the women.

The drop off locations this year are Coastal Community Credit Union in Discovery Harbour, Serendipity on Shoppers Row and Sundance Java Bar in Willow Point.