Members of two local hockey teams froze their toes and noses Saturday as they collected donations for the Haitian relief effort.
Members of the Pictou County Weeks Jr. A Crushers and the Weeks Major Midgets stood in the middle of a downtown bridge manning a voluntary toll for four hours as an icy wind whipped up the East River.
Red-faced with the cold, their hockey jerseys covered with safety vests, the players cheerily shouted “thank you” to the people who rolled down vehicle windows to deposit money into large, 19-litre plastic water bottles, the kind you put on coolers.
Half an hour into the voluntary toll, motorists had stuffed several of the water jars half full with bills and coins.
“The bridge isn’t even busy yet,” said New Glasgow police Const. Rebecca Heighton, one of the warmly clad officers supervising the toll on the George Street bridge.
The hockey players were joined later in the morning by town councillors and other volunteers.
By the time the toll closed at 1 p.m., volunteers collected 133 litres of money — about seven of the large water jugs — for the Haitian Relief Fund. The fund is administered by the Canadian Red Cross.
There were so many bills, loonies, toonies and quarters, organizers figured it would take until Tuesday to count all the money.
Volunteers estimated the final tally will be in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.
As far as anyone can remember, Saturday’s event was the second time a voluntary toll was held on the bridge to help disaster victims. The first was in 2004 when one was held to raise money for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
The number of deaths due to the Haitian earthquake was earlier estimated to be about 50,000 — roughly the population of Pictou County. That figure has multiplied and is expected to reach about 200,000, but the initial estimate brought the magnitude of the disaster home to area residents, said Kim Dickson, New Glasgow’s marketing director.
Tags: fundraiser, relief