By Jared Gomes
NAITSA still requires volunteers for their annual Trick or Treat event. This yearly event is a long standing tradition to collect donations for the NAITSA food center.
Due to COVID-19 some things had to be changed in order to make sure everyone stays safe.
Normally when this event takes place students go door to door on Halloween to collect food donations while others are trick or treating. In previous years volunteers have collected over 3000-pounds of non-perishable food items for NAITSA’s Food Centre.
“This always had an amazing turnout, was a great way to help students at our school and was a great experience for international students as they got to see what Halloween is like here in Canada,” said Natalie Sarzynski, volunteer coordinator for the event.
“Sadly though, this is not a possibility this year. So, in order to keep our students safe and hopefully still collect a lot of food for students in need, things had to be done a bit differently.”
From October 5 to 16 student volunteers will be dropping off flyers notifying neighborhoods about the changes this year and how they can still help.
“This year, NAIT has partnered with businesses such as Boston Pizza in Beverly, Mandolin Books, and key support services,” said Sarzynski.
Sarzynski says partnering with the businesses have allowed NAITSA to put donation bins in the establishments so people can drop off food donations. The food is then put in quarantine to make sure any potential bacteria or viruses die off before the food is given to those who need it.
If any students are interested in helping they can still RSVP at ookslife.ca on the page for the event. Though the deadline has passed, late registrations are still accepted.
Volunteers will also receive some awesome goodies in the volunteer kits for helping out.
