Donations needed

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Through her position with Western Storage, one woman has decided to help a lesser-known organization in their time of need. 

Christy Bangen works closely with Alberta Association for Community Living, AACL, and their Alberta Community Living Foundation, ACLF, and has realized they are in need of help. 

“It’s sort of been a rough time lately. Seasonally, I mean the weather certainly plays a role,” said Shawn Ergang, who is the COO of the AACL and in charge of the ACLF. 

“Typically by this time of year we see a large spike in donations, just as people get into their garages and get outside, and start doing their yard work. Basically the spring cleaning phenomena, which has been pushed back, sort of repeatedly, based on weather.”

Another factor is an increasing need, and there is plenty of competition for the donations. The ACLF utilizes Western Storage trailers for the storage and movement of the donated items.

The Alberta Community Living Foundation is the fund development arm of the AACL. It’s a family-governed organization that has been around for over 50 years.

“What we actually utilize our donations for is, we use them for fund development purposes,” said Ergang.

“So we solicit and collect used clothing, and household goods. Then we sell those, to the Value Village stores at a preset contracted rate, and we use those funds to help the families that we serve.” 

The ACLF is always collecting donations, which are a primary source of unrestricted funds for the association. Unrestricted funds allow them to react to families in crisis, whereas government funding only allows them to use the funds for specific tasks.  

Bangen has organized an exclusive donation pick-up service by Western Storage for the ACLF on May 14 and 15 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The trailer will be located at the Speargrass golf course. Unfortunately, the ACLF is not able to accept furniture.