Coldest Night of the Year
Coldest Night of the Year www.coldestnightoftheyear.org
The Coldest Night of the Year walk (WALK) is a non-competitive 5 or 10 km walk-a-thon in the dead of winter to help support the hungry, homeless and hurting of Kitchener-Waterloo. The Walk is designed to help elevate the issue of homelessness & poverty in our community and raise funds for the Ray of Hope Community Centre.
The Walk will begin at Cameron Heights Collegiate at 5 PM, where walkers will don blue toques and head to Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo (10 km route) or UW’s School of Pharmacy (5 km route) to rest & warm up and then return to the Ray of Hope Community Centre for some hot soup & chili.
In its second year the Coldest Night of the Year walk has grown from 3 partner agencies in 2 cities to 18 partners, in 18 different cities, in four different provinces. Last year Ray of Hope was blessed to have 37 teams consisting of 241 walkers who raised $68,000. As of today, Ray of Hope has recruited 45 teams made up of 192 walkers with an overall event goal of raising $100,000.
For 45 years Ray of Hope has worked with troubled youth and people in poverty in the Waterloo Region. Their wide range of services address issues related to youth in conflict with the law, poverty, addictions, and youth employment. Last year the Ray of Hope Community Centre served 65,826 meals, distributed 12,002 food hampers, and gave away 24,560 free clothing items to a growing number of people in our KW community who need support.
