Sault Ste. Marie's SOYA ramping up fundraising

SAULT STE. MARIE -

A group in Sault Ste. Marie that's working to address the ongoing opioid crisis is getting its fundraising activities back into full-swing. Saving Our Young Adults - or SOYA - had to halt its usual fundraising initiatives when COVID-19 hit.

SOYA is partnering with Youth Homes on a yard sale fundraiser, which is to be held Saturday and Sunday. The first day was going well - until it started raining.

"Mother Nature didn't cooperate," says SOYA founder Connie Raynor-Elliott. "We'll be back tomorrow from 8:00 to 2:00 on Sunday for the SOYA Youth Homes event."

The founder of Youth Homes, which helps at risk youth find a place to live and learn life skills, says they were planning a basement sale fundraiser just before the pandemic hit.

So since we opened up we decided to get things out of that basement and create a yard sale," says Denis Beaulieu. "So I partnered with SOYA so that we could join together and raise funds for both our initiatives."

Despite the wet weather on opening day, Raynor-Elliott says the yard sale is off to a good start.

"Our community stepped up, we worked at the depot here for nine hours just sorting out stuff," she says. "More donations kept coming in. This morning everybody came in, set up. Lots of people were coming in."

Raynor-Elliott points out that SOYA is a not-for-profit that depends on fundraisers, such as this weekend's yard sale, and she's hoping people will come out for day-two - and that the weather will be more accommodating.