When Gregory Ould offered a blanket to a homeless man back in 2005, he didn’t realize he was about to change his life’s focus.

Ould is the co-founder, along with his son Ben, of BlanketBC Society, an organization based in Mission that collects and distributes blankets to those in need.

Ould is a Canada Line Attendant and his organization has collected over 400,000 blankets to date!

This year, BlanketBC’s ‘Drive on the Line’ celebrates 10 years of changing lives and bringing warmth to people blanket by blanket.

North America’s largest blanket drive, this two-day donation initiative involves over 175 blanketeers ranging from individuals to families to corporate and sporting teams.

These volunteers collect blankets from our customers and the public at eight stations from downtown Vancouver to Richmond.

If you’d like to donate, you can head to:

• Waterfront Station
• Yaletown/Roundhouse
• Vancouver City
• Broadway/City Hall
• Oakridge/41^st
• Marine Drive
• Bridgeport, and
• Lansdowne

Donations accepted are: socks, scarves, mittens, toques, and of course – blankets. All donated items are divided up and distributed to over 100 shelter programs and organizations that work directly with society’s most impoverished individuals and families throughout Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island.

BlanketBC requests that you ensure the items you donate are clean.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Burnaby Lakers (@burnabylakers)

Last year’s blanket drive successfully collected over 6200 blankets, 1200 articles of clothing and over $7600! Every year, the goal is to collect over 10,000 blankets.

For more information, or to volunteer, please visit the BlanketBC website, or contact Gregory Ould.

Author: Tanushree Pillai