About Operation Snowsuit

The goal of Operation Snowsuit is to provide outdoor winter wear that will enable all children to participate in outdoor activities during our severe winters. All too often children are kept in during recess if they do not have adequate clothing, especially during our winter period. Children who do not have snowsuits, boots, hats and gloves cannot play outside with their friends, and therefore are not included. We believe that children should have the feeling and the reality of belonging and being included in their community, it is for this reason that Operation Snowsuit was created.

The CPAN team putting together 55 bags to fulfill Operation Snowsuit requests. To see more pictures like this, check out the Operation Snowsuit Photo Gallery.

We typically supply a snowsuit, boots, hat, and gloves (conservatively estimated to cost an average of $125 per child). We have requests for all ages, this includes babies that are not yet born and due during the winter (so that parents can bring them home from hospital), up to and including 18 yr olds that need men’s and ladies’ sizes (up to and including 3X and size Men’s 13 boots!).

We collect gently used items throughout Renfrew County in almost all schools, in every school board. Once these are collected within the schools Bell employees pick these up and deliver them to Giant Tiger, who have donated 5,000 square footage of space year-round to warehouse our inventory. Volunteers then spend many hours sorting, hanging, and picking orders. Bell then pick up all completed requests and deliver these to the nearest partner agency to distribute on our behalf. All orders are given a number and only CPAN and the distributing agency can marry a number to the name, this ensures confidentiality. Operation Snowsuit is run using the same high standards of respect and dignity as all of CPAN’s other programs.

We utilize financial donations to buy anything that we don’t have on hand. Although we have many items donated there are some that we will not have in our inventory, such as men’s and ladies sizes (especially the larger ones) and snow pants. We quite often receive lovely jackets but the snow pants have been worn out or ripped. We find that certain children’s sizes are often hard to find in gently used (ages 12-14).

While we are aware that the local Kiwanis Club does supply a limited amount of snowsuits to individuals our program Operation Snowsuit differs in many ways. Operation Snowsuit is county wide, and aims to make sure that every child in Renfrew County has appropriate winter wear and that he or she is able to participate in extracurricular activities. CPAN was able to run Operation Snowsuit with great success in previous years, with client numbers increasing year after year.  

So far we have been able to fill every request that we have ever received, we rely heavily on the community to help us continue to do so.

What We Need

We are out of the following items. Every donation helps so please contact us if you would like to make a contribution.

Boots

• Mens 12
• Boys 8
• Boys 4
• Ladies 8

Snow pants

• Girls 7
• Girls 8
• Girls 10-12
• Boys 7
• Boys 8
• Boys 10-12

Snowsuits

• Boys 7-8
• Girls 7-8
• Boys 10-12
• Girls 10-12
• Ladies Small
• Men’s Medium 

Waterproof gloves

• All sizes

We are always short of sizes 6 and up (especially snow pants) and adult sizes for the teenagers who need assistance as well.

Please contact us if you would like to donate or for more information about Operation Snowsuit.