Kamloops resident Cassie McNutt stands on top of bins of Christmas lights that are part of an annual charity drive.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Cassie McNutt

A Kamloops teenager and full time student, who has already raised thousands of dollars for Kamloops Hospice and she's hoping to raise even more this year.

Cassie McNutt, 16, is the driving force behind Cassie’s Charity Drive. This is the fifth year for the annual drive and it continues to grow.

Somehow she manages the extra workload around studying and school.

“The community motivates me, seeing how the project brings everyone together to reach a common goal,” McNutt said. “It’s important for everyone to come together, no matter what age, and give back, I want to show people they can. It’s a lot of work, but worth it.”

Cassie’s Charity Drive started in 2019 when the then 13-year-old prompted her parents to hold a homeless winter clothing drive. With the help from the community, the family filled three or four trucks for the shelters that first year and collected roughly $2,000. Last year the drive raised $58,287 for Kamloops hospice. 

Previously funding was collected through an auction where McNutt would spend the year going to businesses collecting auction items. This year, McNutt’s doing something different. She recently got a license to run a province wide 50/50 raffle with a prize worth $50,000.

“You can potentially win up to $50,000, our license can go up to $100,000,” she said. “Right now my goal is set to $80,000. On top of that the 50/50 would stop but we’d still be collecting cash donations. I wondered if people (in B.C.) would care about just one hospice but it's about giving anyone a way to give back and inspiring them to start similar things.”

Part of the project is a Christmas light display at the McNutt house that now has roughly 50,000 lights on it, with more lights being added every year. A donation bin is set up on the property to receive needed items for hospice. This year McNutt is building and painting a Santa sleigh for visitors to take pictures next to.

“My dad is using every day off he can to work on the lights, he’s always out on the roof,” she said. “We spend all of our spare time on this." 

Cassie McNutt was crowned a Kamloops Ambassador in July.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Cassie McNutt

McNutt said she chose to raise funds for Kamloops hospice because it is a place “many different people have connections to” and she has good memories of spending time there as a child with a few of her own late family members.

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In July the teenager was crowned a Kamloops Ambassador after six months of training, knowledge test, speech competitions and community service events. She will spend the next year representing Kamloops, attending community events and travelling to other cities to meet other ambassadors.

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The raffle starts in mid November and updates can be found on McNutt’s new Facebook page.

Located at 5215 Dallas Drive The light display is open to the public every night between Dec. 2 and Dec. 31. 

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