After a year hiatus, the REALTORS Care® Blanket Drive is back! The less fortunate in our communities have been hit hard by COVID-19, and even with the light at the end of the tunnel, they need our help more than ever.

With vaccination rates rising, and new safety guidelines, we’re able to collect blankets, warm clothing, and new socks and undergarments starting November 15. These are the items we're looking for:

• warm clothing
• coats
• blankets
• new socks
• new underwear

Donations will be delivered to these charities.

Last year REALTORS raised $50,000 for our partner charities. The donations helped when they were at their lowest. 

Funds are still tight, so we're doing this again. All proceeds will go directly to local charities that help keep those in need safe and warm.

Have a look at this video where our Realtors challenged you to make a donation to our Blanket Drive charities!

Here's a list of Lower Mainland charities that receive donations from the Blanket Drive.

Way back in 1994, some caring REALTORS® in Vancouver observed the homeless situation in the city’s eastside and said to themselves, we’ve got to do something.

They put out an appeal to their colleagues for warm blankets and coats and collected enough donations to help 3,000 of Vancouver’s homeless in the downtown core.

That single act of kindness has blossomed into one of the largest annual collections of warm clothing and blankets, helping homeless people and the working poor in every single community in the Lower Mainland.

Since then, thousands of REALTORS® from Whistler to Hope have collected enough donations to help more than 385,000 people in need. Each year, more than 75 dedicated members pick-up and deliver all the donations, and well over 100 real estate offices in the Lower Mainland act as collection depots.

The REALTORS Care® Drive now collects an astonishing amount of warm, winter items on behalf of dozens of local charities to help about 35,000 people each year.

Working together to provide warmth is why a quilt was chosen to represent 2014's Blanket Drive.

The quilt's patchwork design represents how we work with charities to help relieve the strain of poverty of those in need.

In keeping with this theme, a commemorative quilt was made to mark the Blanket Drive's 20th anniversary.

Blocks with names of real estate offices that act as drop-off locations, images from previous Blanket Drive posters, a brief history of this annual event, and the signatures of past and current volunteers make up the design.

Pictured with the quilt are two of the Realtors who founded this program, and volunteers past and present.