Donated workshop kits help keep Chilliwack kids busy during pandemic

Dozens of kids will stay busy this summer by assembling workshop kits, thanks to Home Depot and the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).

On Wednesday, employees with UFV picked up more than 100 kits which will be handed out to Chilliwack kids and their families as part of their COVID-19 project called Community Craft Time, which began back in May.

The kits were donated by Home Depot in Chilliwack and include 48 seed starter planters, plus dozens of Christmas countdown calendar kits and ornament kits in the shape of a stocking.

Home Depot also donated paint, paint brushes, soil, lettuce seeds, kids aprons and other supplies for the initiative.

“It’s great for the community and great for the kids,” said Aaron Hale, store manager.

Typically, the kits are used during the store’s regular kids workshop classes which draw an average of 120 kids every month.

Now the kits are being put to use again after the in-store workshops were cancelled due to COVID-19.

The seed planters and Christmas kits will be handed out to local Indigenous families with young children, people living in The Family Centre at Ruth and Naomi’s, and participants with Chilliwack Community Services.

The Home Depot workshop kits are one of four arts-and-craft kits that employees at UFV have put together. The others were rock-painting kits, woven paper basket kits and thank-you cards for health-care workers.

READ MORE: UFV employees hand out arts-and-craft kits to Chilliwack families during COVID-19 pandemic