In just three days of collecting donations for Princeton, the entirety of the old restaurant at the Richter Pass Motor Inn filled up to its brims. Locals poured in bringing all sorts of items from blankets to clothes to food, and some even volunteered their time to help in any way they could.

Stacy Little, manager at the Inn, has been working with Osoyoos local Brenda Lee to organize and coordinate this effort which has taken flight as soon as it started.

Every year Lee does a fundraiser during the holiday season called ‘Coleton Clause and Ryker’s Reindeer’ to honor the memory of her son and grandson who sadly passed away many years ago. Last year they helped around 26 families with the donations they collected. This year, given the flooding situation in Princeton, Lee thought it would be a good idea to collect donations to help those in need in that area.

Little saw Lee’s post on social media, asking for donations, and reached out to help. “We have this restaurant building here which used to be Campo’s restaurant, and it has not been used in over 12 years,” said Little who figured it would be a good idea to use this space for donations.

“Right now, what we’re doing is we just use the front of the restaurant building as kind of the hub for the donations to be dropped off. It’s just a little bit more organized, just because when you’re trying to do it out of your home, it can be very daunting. And then this way, we could have volunteers come to a central place where they could help distribute the items,” said Little.

The two have also been coordinating with the folks in Princeton to find out what they need and how to get it to them. Little said there are three groups on the other end to sort through and distribute the donations over there; one group for food donations, one for Christmas hamper things, and one for clothes and winter stuff.

On Thursday morning, 3D Moving (who volunteered to drive all the items to Princeton) loaded up the big moving truck full of donations and set off. Little said they are planning on sending at least one more truck as donations keep coming in, and based on what the folks in Princeton need.

“The crisis center in Princeton is looking for things for their [Christmas] hampers; they’re worried about the children not having Christmas this year,” said Little. They’re still looking for donations with things like winter shovels, underwear, plus size clothing, winter jackets, hats, and scarfs.

“I do know later on within a month or two, they will be asking for furniture. Right now they’re just basically digging themselves out,” explained Little who added that people from Princeton have been pumping out the water from their homes and digging out all the sludge that was left over.

“So once the houses are dried and at some point when they’ve been rebuilt up to a certain degree, those people will need furniture and beds and things like that. So we’ll probably do another call out. But it’ll be a bit.”

Little said all in all, they’ve been completely overwhelmed with the level of support and generosity seen within the community over the last week.

“We’ve had so many people that have just stepped up and said, ’you know, we can come and sort, we can organize, we can help load, we’ll drive it.’ We’re so lucky because we live in such a great community where everybody just wants to help, whether they’re donating or sorting or volunteering their time. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this—Osoyoos comes together all the time for all sorts of different needs; you just have to ask,” said Little.

Donations can be dropped off at 7506 Main Street, Osoyoos in the empty restaurant building at the Richter Pass Motor Inn. between 12-5pm everyday. Anyone looking to make a monetary donation can etransfer [email protected]