Montreal father-daughter duo helping to keep city’s homeless community warm this winter
Global News
Victoria Kalisky and her father Lorne have gone out overnight and handed out winter jackets, hats and gloves to hundreds of people experiencing homelessness in Montreal.
Victoria Kalisky and her father Lorne have spent the last two nights handing out hundreds of new winter jackets, as well as hats and gloves, to Montrealers experiencing homelessness.
Since starting a GoFundMe on Saturday night, Kalisky — a 23-year-old McGill University student — had already raised over $18,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
“Initially, we intended to donate about 25 coats and then over time, our goal increased as the community stepped up and really surpassed our expectations,” Kalisky said.
So far, Kalisky, with help from her dad, has purchased and distributed 581 parkas through a local distributor.
Kalisky said it was a trip to the grocery store in -30 C weather that opened her eyes.
“It was so cold that my face was in pain,” she said. “I noticed that men and women were spending the entire night in that severe weather.”
But what really spurred her into action was when she learned of the death of a homeless woman whose body was found outside near the Berri-UQAM metro station last week.
It’s the second death to hit the homeless community in just two weeks. A 74-year-old man was found outside a makeshift camp on Jan. 10 in Montreal’s NDG borough. He was thought to be suffering from hypothermia and was taken to hospital, where he later died.