The National Diabetes Trust celebrated its 40th anniversary by hosting a nationwide clothing collection drive to support people living with diabetes. The organization collected gently used clothes and small household items on May 31 across multiple locations in Canada.

The National Diabetes Trust is Canada’s largest charitable clothing and small household goods collection service. For 40 years, this program has collected donations to raise money for Diabetes Canada, helping fund important diabetes research and support programs. The nationwide donation drive was held between 9am and 2pm on May 31 across multiple locations in Canada, including centres in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

The program started in 1985 as a small home pickup service in Vancouver and has grown into one of Canada’s biggest charitable clothing donation programs, with 3500 drop locations and having completed 36 million visits to pick up donations from Canadian homes. The organization has raised over $200 million to support critical diabetes research and diabetes programs for patients. The first donation bin was placed in Alberta in 1999, and now there are over 3,500 bins across Canada (excluding Quebec and the territories).

The program has so far prevented over 3 billion pounds of items from going to Canada’s landfills. Each year, the program diverts more than 100 million lbs of clothing and household items from landfill sites across Canada.

Source: NewmarketToday