East Coasters for Fort McMurray gets help for fire victims

Two Halifax women saythey're overwhelmed withdonations to help evacuees in Alberta, days after they put out a request for help.

Aimee Redden and her friend Corinne Crowdis collected so many donations they ran out of room to store them.

"People left home with nothing and they're going back to nothing," Redden said told Maritime Connection on Sunday.

• Listen: 'People just felt the need that they wanted to help'

The friends are coordinating their efforts via the Facebook page East Coasters for Fort McMurray. They asked for donations last week and started collecting. They've since joined effortswith Relief Packages for Fort McMurray Wildfire Victims.

All of the aid will go to the evacuation centres in northern Alberta.

"We are collecting everyday items. We need toiletries the most right now," Crowdis said.

That includes baby wipes, diapers and other essentials people had to leave behind as they fled the fire.

The donations came in faster than the friends expected.They soon filled up storage lockers donated by Metro Self Storage and Premier Self Storage and used theHammonds Plains Community Centre as an extra drop-off space.

Sunday night they opened the doors there for more donations. Redden said it's "wall to wall" with goods. They're linking to people across the Maritimes now to gather more help.

They're still collecting, with a focus on new pillows, blankets and toiletries and more volunteers to help with the sorting.

Two men from Oromocto, N.B., offered to deliver the donations to Alberta on Thursday for free.