Osoyoos 'gift cupboard' offers compassion, essentials to people in need

Take whatever you need, whenever you need it.

That's the idea behind the "Osoyoos Gift Cupboard" a wooden cabinet situated on the town's Main Street that offers up aselection of essential items, such as toothbrushes, shampoo andmittens for kids.

Osoyoos resident Gaye Horn says she started the projectalong with friends Brenda Dorosz and Jen Shiels after they heard about similar initiatives in communities in the U.S.

"It is predominately for those that are a little less fortunate," she said.

"There are many working poor in this town and we have many migrant workers and hitchhikers going through,and a lot of the time the things they can't afford are deodorant, hand soap, shampoo.And so it is for them."

But she adds, the cupboard is open to all.

"Anybody at all. Whether you have the money or you don't have the money, if you are walking down the street and you've got a cut finger and the drug store is fiveblocks away,take a band-aid, please," Horn said.

Apart from toiletries, Horn and her partners stock the cabinet with band-aids, shoe laces, pencils, colouring booksand calendars.

They don't offer food, and they don't include clothing aside from mitts, toques and socks.Horn explainedthatthe local food bank and thrift stores supply the rest of thoseitems to people in the community.

Horn and her partners have set up donation bins at businesses in town and regularly post a list of items they need on a local Facebook page so people who want to donate to the project can contribute.

The gift cupboard has now been in place for sixweeks and is thefirst project ofits kind in western Canada, according to Horn.

Two women in Calgary recently started a similar initiative, and Horn hopes the idea of a gift cupboard spreads toother B.C. communities.