The world is always a better place when we look out for each other. In scary and uncertain times, it’s always worth it to not only look for the helpers, but be one too.
This was our goal when Knix launched our campaign to facilitate and deliver Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline healthcare workers. With the help of our community, the campaign raised over $150,000 in just under 2 weeks. We will never be able to thank you enough. Because of you, we’ve been able to purchase and start distributing over 200,000 units of certified masks and gloves to hospitals and clinics across Canada.
On top of your donations, we are so excited that the campaign’s scope widened with a $100,000 pledge from the Robert Kerr Foundation— a Toronto-based foundation committed to addressing the basic and urgent needs to improve the lives of children and the homeless. They’ve also committed to matching every dollar Knix raises, for up to a total of $100,000. We are so thankful for their contribution, which will help support the need for PPE in Toronto homeless shelters, drop-in centres and agencies.
While we’ll continue sending PPE to healthcare workers on the frontlines (over 225 hospitals have filled out our confidential request form), these donations from the Robert Kerr Foundation will specifically help an extremely at-risk population. We spoke with Bri Trypuc, the Executive Director of the foundation, to learn more about their crucial need for PPE:
“People who experience homelessness are a vulnerable group. They live in environments conducive to infectious diseases, have exposed immune systems from underlying health conditions and are often transient, making it difficult to prevent transmission. We are deeply concerned about infection rates and mortality among our vulnerable populations and of the frontline staff working tirelessly, at tremendous risk, to serve them”
If you’d like to help us donate PPE to frontline healthcare workers, please check out and share our campaign here.
If you are a hospital, clinic or a lab that needs extra protective equipment, we will do our best to help. We are accepting requests through a confidential form that you can access here.
All month long we’ll be sharing other amazing initiatives from people in our Knix community-— small things you can do to help others while you #StayHome. Are you doing anything to support your neighbourhood, friends and family? Send us a DM @Knixwear, we’d love to share your amazing stories.