Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
No More Tears West Nipissing is no stranger to generosity. In fact, the limited space at their downtown homelessness hub in Sturgeon Falls was beginning to hamper their ability to accept donations at the rate they were coming in. Thankfully, a January 29 contribution from Bay Street Storage was just what they needed in the moment. The storage unit rental company provided NMTWN with one of their units free of charge, so that they could continue to take in items without overwhelming their office space, by storing them off-site.
According to Michelle Labelle, who co-owns Bay Street Storage with her husband François, they were informed of NMTWN and the work that they do and decided that they were in a position to help. The couple had just opened their business officially on December 10, and had some units to spare. “We had an opportunity to help them help others,” says Labelle, adding that she spent some time going over the NMTWN Facebook page and seeing plenty of posts about the clients the organisation has helped. “We’re such a small community, but I find that this community helps so much. I’ve always seen it and now being able to offer something myself to the community, it’s awesome.”
“Michelle just gave me a call and said they had these brand-new units, and they wanted to donate one to us. They were watching our Facebook, where we were constantly saying that we couldn’t take on any more donations because of limited space,” describes NMTWN Executive Director Deliah Greenlees. Labelle says the two of them met to discuss the partnership, and they hit it off.
