The holiday season is a popular time for helping those in need and at one Nanaimo medical centre, that is exactly what is happening.For the past five years the Cline Medical Centre has been involved with the Coins for Kids campaign, a coin drive organized by the Nanaimo News Bulletin and Black Press.
Ruth Thorpe, a registered nurse with the centre, said taking care of patients or complete strangers is what the clinic is all about.
"It is about health and wellness," Thorpe said. "Promoting health and wellness in the community is important and Coins for Kids is one way of giving back."
The Cline Medical Centre has been involved with Coins for Kids for the last five years. Thorpe said it was a natural decision for the clinic to first participate in the coin campaign.
"As a clinic we also like to give back to the community," she said. "We are an integrated functional medicine clinic, so it is not your regular medical clinic and a lot of our patients are repeat patients."
Coins for Kids originally began in 1996 under the name Pennies for Presents and was renamed to Coins For Kids in 2013 after the Royal Canadian Mint decided to discontinue production of the penny.
Thorpe said the clinic has not seen an increase or decrease in donations since the penny was phased out, adding that it often receives bills in the coin jar.
"Here it has been about the same," she said. "Even when it was pennies we were getting paper money from people. We are fortunate because a lot of our patients are clients who end up giving us usually paper money, which is kind of nice."
Coins can be dropped off at the Cline Medical Centre, which is located on 233 Prideaux St. For more information on office hours, please call 250-753-3030.
The Coins for Kids campaign will run until mid-December. Donations can be dropped off at the News Bulletin, 777 Poplar St., from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Donations can also be made at community drop-off locations, including InPrint, John’s Bedroom Barn, Northridge Fitness, La-Z-Boy, Royal LePage at Brooks Landing and Quality Foods at University Village.