Downtown Nanaimo businesses are dialing down the heat while collecting sweaters to donate to local charities.
The Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association is joining about 20 other communities participating in the inaugural Turn Down the Heat Week Feb. 2-9, an environmental and charitable initiative presented by Business Improvement Areas of B.C. in collaboration with FortisBC.
“The idea is wear a sweater, give a sweater, turn down the heat,” said Corry Hostetter, DNBIA general manager. “It’s the first provincewide campaign we’ve participated in. It’s our chance, first of all, to give back to a charity. It’s also an opportunity for our businesses to create some traffic at a slow period of time.”
All sweaters collected will be donated to the Nanaimo Women’s Resource Centre and the Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre. If all of the participating businesses collect at least a dozen sweaters, Hostetter said the association should have more than 200 to donate. Provincewide, the goal is to collect about 2,700 sweaters.
She said businesses will start collecting the sweaters today (Jan. 26) and will turn down the heat the following week.