“It’s heartwarming to see how many people care,” says Jessica Ferguson. The Bachelor of Child and Youth Care student saw the Fall term production of Life Kits from start to finish – and was thrilled with this year’s high volunteer turnout.

Filled with necessities for cold weather – from hygiene products to hand warmers to socks – Life Kits are assembled on campus and distributed to the city’s vulnerable by Boyle Street Community Services. This year, kits with warm-weather essentials will also be distributed in the spring.

When the Faculty of Health and Community Studies began preparing for the latest kit assembly event, they reached out to campus clubs for assistance. Ferguson, president of the Child and Youth Care Circle Club, joined forces with the Social Work Club to organize fundraising efforts to purchase items for the Life Kits.

“We held an event where people paid five dollars to throw pies at us,” says Ferguson. “A lot of people came up at that event and wrote a little card to add to the kits. We got around 50 cards within a couple of hours.”

Ferguson has participated in the event in previous years, but found there was a noticeably higher number of volunteers on hand to build the kits this year. In part, she thinks, that’s due to the support and encouragement that volunteers like her received from the faculty who are involved in the event. That same feeling of being supported is something she hopes the recipients of the Life Kits have, too.

“I want members of our community receiving these kits to know that there are people in their community who care for them,” she says. 

Ferguson isn’t sure exactly where she’ll start her career after graduating in the spring, but she has a very clear goal: to keep making an impact on the people around her.

“I fill my own cup by helping others,” she says. “As long as I’m making a difference, I’ll be happy.”