Helping the homeless, one ‘Kare Bag’ at a time
Posted December 4, 2023 11:58 pm.
Last Updated December 5, 2023 2:23 am.
When Loreena Gabriel, founder of The Crown Project, was approached by 11-year-old influencer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Kyra Milan Brown and her mom to create care packages for the homeless, the partnership just made sense. “Kare Bags” Kyra Milan called it.
“A big thing for me was that my name started with a ‘K’. I like the letter ‘K,’ so we thought that would add our own twist,” she says.
The 11 year-old has been creating “Kare Bags” with her family for the last 4 years.
“I asked my mom if we could make these bags and she said “yes”, because I always liked helping out my community,” she says.
The Crown Project, which hosts different charitable events in Montreal throughout the year, also provides assistance and empowers young people to go after their dreams. Since 2021 Kyra Milan and The Crown Project have been working together to create a minimum of 100 care bags to hand out every December. This year’s 9th annual drive is set to run from now until December 10th.
“In the ‘Kare Bags’ we put small toiletries, such as deodorant, mouthwash, wipes like wet wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, moisturizer and in the winter we usually put hats and gloves,” says Kyra Milan.
“A lot of the homeless do need assistance, they do need help. And they usually just get it once a year around Christmas. That’s when everybody comes out and donates to them, which is great. But I did like the fact that Kyra does this year round,” Gabriel says.
With the current higher cost of living, donations have been slower than usual the founder says. With temperatures dipping, both she and Kyra Milan hope to get donations up and the word out.
“It’s not easy right now for everybody to donate and also it’s the holidays. There’s a lot of different organizations to donate to, so we do see a significance with the amount that we’re receiving.”
The Crown Project invites those looking to donate to head to their website, contact them through social media or send an email at infocrownproject@gmail.com.
