Another Successful Year For Homeless For The Holidays
Homeless For The Holidays has officially wrapped up its 21st year, and it was a special one for families all over Bourne.
The annual fundraising and donation event took place at the Bay Motor Inn from December 7 to 11. In addition to Bourne’s event, about a dozen other Homeless For The Holidays events across the Cape kicked off their own iterations to raise money for their local communities.
Bourne’s event this year raised a grand total of $31,793.60 that will be put back into the community through donations to various local organizations. A total of 2,410 toys and 2,936 pounds of food were also collected during the five-day extravaganza.
Kathy Poirier, wife of Homeless For The Holidays founder and retired Bourne firefighter Craig Poirier, said the donations collected were able to help many Bourne families and organizations.
“It really is heartwarming,” she said. “This is a great community.”
Mr. and Mrs. Poirier said the event could not be possible without the help of Irene and Fred Carbone of the Bay Motor Inn, the event’s host. Thanks to the Carbones, Ms. Poirier said, Homeless For The Holidays is able to “totally take over” the Bay Motor Inn and use the property for the event’s collections, gatherings, entertainment, food vendors and visitors.
Homeless For The Holidays events across the Cape and in West Springfield raised a grand total of $95,413.85 to be donated to local causes. More than 11,600 toys were collected for local children and 8,996 pounds (5,495 items) of food were collected to benefit local food pantries and families.
“There are a lot of families being helped,” Ms. Poirier said. “It’s great; it’s grown so much and we couldn’t be happier.”