Nadia Sutherland and her mother Yvonne Shortt, opened the doors of Club NV for their 5th Annual Warm Winter Drive on Sunday November 18th at 1 p.m.,.

This free clothing give away is open to anyone struggling to purchase warm clothing and is not focused on the homeless, although they are most welcome.

Sixty people were lined up outside the entrance at 1 p.m., and they kept coming taking their place in line.

Once inside, they were greeted by the friendly volunteer Marlee, with instructions where to find things, and offered a free lunch ticket. Next, two adorable children offered people an empty plastic bag to help carry out whatever they wanted.

Club NV’s entrance well organized with tables of the most popular items first; gloves, hats and scarves. Their spacious main dance floor had tables overflowing with a huge variety of coats, tops, bottoms, and footwear for all ages. There was plenty of room to walk around even though there were thousands of items to chose from. Even their booths were full of clothing.

People searched through tables to find the styles and sizes they liked as they were helped by volunteers and other people who attended. This was the largest clothing give away I’ve ever seen and it reminded me of value village without price-tags.

Brand new donated coats were behind the bar and distributed accordingly by Nadia and her team of volunteers. Cash donations totalled $1,500 this year and was spent purchasing new items for the drive.

Food was served by two young girls with happy smiles offering a choice of meals in the back of the room. Bar seats and couches were full of people enjoying their meals as friendly chatter filled the air.

Last year, all donated items were taken at the 4th Annual Warm Winter Drive but Nadia’s a little disappointed by the lack of promotion this year, resulting in approximately 30 large bins of leftover clothing.

Her volunteer team sorted through the remaining items and Nadia’s decided to keep this clothing for next year at Just Like New/Monster Liquidation, located at 211 Sherwood Drive, unit 36 & 37; her mother’s store.

Approximately 250 people took advantage of this wonderful 3 hour clothing give away with at least 100 of them arriving within the first hour.

As they left, a grateful “Thank you,” was spoken as it reminds us of what community is all about. Well done Brantford, well done.