Local businesses lead donation drive for Riverside Mission

A call for help by Riverside Mission has led a pair of local businesses to kickstart what they hope will be a massive fundraising campaign for the Moose Jaw homeless shelter.

Al Didkowski of Al’s Auto Service and Dyllan Avinou of Moose Movers laid out their idea on Facebook on Sunday evening, pledging to donate $500 each to Riverside Mission and challenging other businesses in Moose Jaw to do the same.

The decision came out of a social media post by Riverside asking for food donations, as summer months are traditionally when such offerings decrease even though the demand remains largely the same.

“Al saw the Riverside Mission post and anytime he does any giveaways or anything we get together and work something out, and I said ‘hey, let’s try to make this viral and get quite a following on it, get them lots of money for the year so they won’t be struggling’,” explained Avinou. 

“The biggest thing for us, with Riverside Mission, if you drop money off there it’s literally going to go on a plate. Danny Mullens, the guy running it, is a really good guy and he obviously has a vision so we’re happy to step up and try and help.”

The duo reached out to Riverside to let them know of their plans and were met with the kind of reaction one would expect.

“That’s so awesome of them to do that,” said Deann Little with Riverside Mission. “They came in yesterday and filled me in as to what’s going on, the donations they’re trying to bring in for us, and we can’t give a big enough shout-out to those companies, it’s greatly appreciated.”

Riverside is currently seeing around 90 people coming in for lunch and supper every day, not only making for some busy times but also taking a toll on their stock of both perishable and non-perishable food items.

That’s where their call for donations on Facebook came into play. Some of the food items they’d like to see replenished are pasta and pasta sauces, ground beef and ham, canned beans and creamed soups, basically anything nutritious that can be turned into a delicious meal for those in need.

“Summertime is always a lean time, donations always seem to go down and things like that,” Little said. “So we’re just trying to replenish some of the items we’re needing to keep us going through the summer right now.”

Of course, cold hard cash is also very, very nice. And that’s where the fundraising campaign hopes to have a major impact.

“Hunger shouldn’t even be an issue in this town,” Avinou said. “We’re not massive and we’re more than capable of working together. I just figure it’s definitely a good way to go about it and we’ll see how far we’ll be able to take it.”

The good news is there already has been a response. Avinou said four or five other businesses have already reached out, and if things take off, the final total could be rather impressive.

While any kind of financial support is appreciated at Riverside, a donation of tens of thousands of dollars would be something else.

“You just might see me do a dance of joy,” Little said with a laugh. “That would be fantastic, definitely, because being a non-profit, you’re always trying to make sure you have the basic needs to feed the community and also for a shelter for those who need a warm place to put their head at night. So it’s greatly appreciated when we can see this kind of thing happening.”

To support the project and make a donation, simply make a cheque out to Riverside Mission and drop it off, or reach out to them at (306) 624-0137 for other options.