Fundraiser looking to help out homeless youth in Kamloops

Photo: Nathaniel Martin

Norcan Fluid Power branch manager Eric Bahnsen hands Nathaniel Martin donations for the Caravan of Care.

A Kamloops man has set his sights on his next philanthropic endeavour.

Nathaniel Martin, who raised more than $4,000 last fall for the Kamloops Sexual Assault Counselling Centre (KSACC) and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) through his Kamloops Cutober 2020 fundraiser, is now raising money to help homeless youth and young people aging out of foster care without parental guidance.

The Cutober fundraiser saw Martin allow his six-year-old daughter cut his hair as he sought donations to the cause.

Martin, who works at Highland Valley Copper Mine near Logan Lake, has pooled together numerous companies involved in the trades industries to partake in a Caravan of Care on Friday.

The caravan will feature company trucks driving from Riverside Park, across Overlanders Bridge and ending up at the United Way office at Tranquille and Clapperton roads in North Kamloops.

There, drivers will drop off donation cheques made out to the local chapter of the United Way, with funds to be split between A Way Home Kamloops (an agency that focuses on helping homeless youths) and the United Way's community funds ,which help support groups such as the CMHA, KSACC and the Boys and Girls Club.

Martin said the caravan will adhere to COVID-19 social distancing protocols as everyone will remain in their vehicles, with no handshakes or fist bumps.

Local companies, including Weir Minerals, Molycop, Cyclone Hydrovac, Sher Crane, Norcan Fluid Power, BTA Reliability and Lapper Security, are among those that will set out on the ride, beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Martin has also set up a GoFundMe account called Kamloops Caravan of Care that is open to the public to donate to the cause, Those wishing to contribute to the Caravan of Care GoFundMe page can do so by clicking here.