Love Hard Kamloops directors from left: Charlene Cash, Jasper Bailey-Anderson, Amy Giddens, Mark Moran and Lynne Borle are pictured here at the Feed it Forward event on March 25.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Lynne Borle

KAMLOOPS - The creators of a Facebook group aimed to help less fortunate individuals and families are hoping to become a registered not-for-profit organization by the end of August.

Love Hard Kamloops was started by Amy Giddens last fall. Giddens says the goal of the group, which currently has 878 members on Facebook, is to fill small gaps she finds throughout the community. Mark Moran, who works closely with Giddens, says their services range, but their mission is to become an official society of people helping people.

"There's a number of things we do, it's fairly wide and broad," he says. "We want to fill the gaps where there already isn't something in place."

The group regularly helps the city's homeless population by donating sandwiches, clothes, and materials but they also help in other areas. Last year, the group was actively involved with helping wildfire evacuees.

"We want to help where there is a need," Moran says. "If there is no one else filling that need, we want to make sure we are."

Moran says solving problems immediately is a big part of the group's mission.

"That's one of the things that's made us successful is we solve things within hours or a day," he says. "For example, there was a shoe drive for the city's homeless people recently, and the sizes ranged from four to 12, and there was one gentleman who had size 14 feet and couldn't find anything, and we ended up finding a pair of custom-made boots for him through a local organization."

Moran says they are still waiting to hear back from the provincial government on the group's bylaws to be approved to become a not-for-profit.

"We should hear back in the next month or two, our names been approved and it's going to be the Love Hard Kamloops Society," he says, adding that they most likely won't be getting a public space unless it's donated.

In the meantime, Giddens says the group plans to walk in the city's second annual Pride Parade and will resume their street outreach services program in September.

For more information on how to become a member of the Love Hard Kamloops Society, go here.

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