Young girls hold blanket drive for Winnipeg homeless

A group of young cheerleaders in Transcona spent their Thanksgiving collecting blankets for a homeless shelter.

The Empowering Girls Cheer Program collected dozens of blankets Monday afternoon at the Transcona Nationals Football and Cheer Club on McMeans Avenuethe culmination of months of cheerleading and empowerment workshops designed to give the girls confidence and help the community.

"Every half hour prior to our cheer practise, my friend Tanya Clarke-Marinelli and I sit with the girls and we do empowerment work everything from self-love, gratitude, goal setting," said director Sherry Selley.

"One of the last exercises we did was, 'We're going to give you girls a project. We want you to think of a way that you can give back to your community,' and this is what they ultimately came up with."

The girls range in age from 6 to 14.

Hoping to help as many people as possible

"It's getting cold out and homeless doesn't have blankets so we're donating blankets," said six-year-old Madeline Poon.

"They get nice and cosy so they don't have to be cold like at winter," added seven-year-old Mia Berndsen.

"To us, giving back is empowering. People don't realize how powerful they are. Even at seven years old, you can do something to change someone's life," said Selley. "We're hoping to help as many homeless people in Winnipeg as we can by giving them a little bit of warmth."

The blankets will be donated to Siloam Mission. Selley says the cheerleading program will continue next year, and they hope to have an even more ambitious community project next year.