by Sylene Argent
The Maidstone Bicentennial Museum and its Junior Historical Society is on a mission to collect mittens in an effort to keep others warm this winter.
Museum Curator, Victoria Beulieu, is asking anyone in a position to give, to think about picking up a pair of mittens or gloves to support the Museum’s mitten drive.
The donations can be dropped off at the Maidstone Bicentennial Museum on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or placed in the drop off box in front of the building, anytime). Donations can also be dropped off at the Essex Home Hardware or at Trepanier’s Fuel and Automotive Centre in Saint Joachim.
“They offered to help. I thought it was nice of them,” Beaulieu said of the participation of the local businesses.
All of the mittens, or other warming wears, donated through this collection program, will be donated to the Essex Salvation Army, which will then be forwarded to local families and individuals in need. Any size of mitten will be accepted.
The Maidstone Bicentennial Museum will drop off the donated items on two different dates; one before Christmas and the other nearing the end of January. That way, youth who may lose their first pair of mittens can have a replacement for the remainder of the winter.
Warming wear will be collected until January 15.
“It is going pretty well so far,” Beaulieu said of the collection. “We want to collect as many pair of mittens as possible.”
The Maidstone Bicentennial Museum is a not-for-profit organization, and its members are always working to support its programs to ensure the Museum can be enjoyed by as many as possible. “It is nice to work for others,” Beaulieu said of collecting mittens for the Salvation Army. “We teach the kids [in the Junior Historical Society], you have to reach out into the community and help others as much as possible.”
The Maidstone Bicentennial Museum chose to collect mittens as they are a needed, yet easy to pick-up, warming item.