Like many charitable organizations this year, the Guelph-Wellington Shoebox Project’s holiday drive will be turning to gift cards, instead of filling empty shoeboxes for women with feel good items who are impacted by homelessness in the community.

McQueen said this year’s goal is to be able to provide each female they have provided a box for in the past, with a $50 gift card.

“Whether that might be a full $50 to somewhere specific, or maybe $25 and $25 to two different places, but the goal still stays the same COVID-19 or not, we still are determined to ensure that all of these women through these agencies and shelters still feel loved and cared for by their community,” McQueen said.

McQueen said to keep everyone safe, they have made things very easy for people to donate.

“It’s easy as going onto our website, going onto shoeboxproject.com and selecting the community that they would like to support, so they can go on there to the dropdown menu and they can select Guelph-Wellington County, [and] they can make an automatic monetary donation,” she said.

McQueen said people can also make a gift card donation and choose where they would like their gift card to come from, or they can make a virtual shoebox.

She added that they have a bit more time this year to find donors, purchase the gift cards, and get them dropped off to the agencies and shelters by Dec. 10.

To donate, please visit shoeboxproject.com

Kayla McQueen, local coordinator for the Shoebox Project Guelph-Wellington: