Sudbury’s diaper drive collects 1,217 cases for families in need

Playing null of undefined

Pure Country diaper drive supports hundreds of Sudbury-area families

Pure Country 91.7's annual Diaper Drive returns

Pure Country Diaper Drive returns to support Sudbury's Pregnancy Care Centre

Pure Country hosts final day of Diaper Drive at New Sudbury Centre

The eighth annual Diaper Drive-By, organized by Sudbury radio station Pure Country 91.7, concluded Friday after surpassing its donation goal and collecting more than 1,200 cases of diapers and wipes for local families.

The final tally reached 1,217 cases, exceeding the campaign’s target of 1,000. All donations will go to the Pregnancy Care Centre & Infant Food Bank Sudbury.

“It’s become a staple in our community for our listeners, for Sudbury, and most importantly, for the Pregnancy Care Centre of Sudbury,” said Bryan “Coop” Cooper of Pure Country.

“They are the ones who do the incredible work for the families who just need a little bit of extra help. That’s why we do this. That’s why we rally the community, and that’s why this campaign is so important and significant for Sudbury.”

The drive culminated with a Friday morning broadcast from the New Sudbury Centre parking lot, the site of collection events throughout the week.

Growing community tradition

The event has grown significantly from its origins. Coop recounted its modest start in 2018.

“We proposed the idea, ‘Why don’t we try a diaper drive with our listeners for the Centre?’ So we did and we proudly collected about 60 cases in year number one,” he said.

Donations jumped to 200 cases the following year. The current “drive-by” format was born during the COVID-19 pandemic as a safer way to collect donations in a parking lot. That adaptation proved successful, with the 2021 event gathering 400 cases. After partnering with Shoppers Drug Mart, the drive collected just over 1,000 cases in its fifth year.

“We’ve seen it get bigger and bigger every single year, and now, after eight years of doing it, Coop, I feel like we’ve really hit, hit a peak where hitting, you know, the highest numbers of diaper donations we’ve ever seen from Sudbury,” said Josh Corbett, Coop’s morning co-host.

“This has always been, and continues to be, a team effort. All hands on deck,” Coop said, emphasizing the team effort involved.

Donations to make a major impact

The donated diapers will provide crucial support for the Pregnancy Care Centre’s clients. Cherie Bonhomme from the centre said the organization serves a substantial number of local families.

“We serve between three to 500 families each year at the infant food bank. So, every child that comes in, under the age of two, will get diapers,” she said.

“That’s quite a few children that need it

Bonhomme noted the scale of the radio station’s drive means the donations will stock the shelves for months.

She told CTV News that the donations will typically last until June, which makes a major impact for the Pregnancy Care Centre.

Friday’s finale followed a successful but cold outdoor broadcast on Wednesday, hosted by afternoon drive host Matt Brown, which helped push the campaign past the halfway point toward its goal.

“After today’s 7-hour broadcast in that dry, cold weather, we can officially say we are a little over halfway towards our goal of collecting 1,000 cases by the end of the week,” Brown said in a social media post at the time.

With the final number tallied, organizers celebrated the community’s generosity in ensuring the drive’s continued success.

“This event/initiative has become a staple for many in the (Sudbury) community around Christmas time and we are honoured to help bring awareness (and lots of donations) to the amazing work the Pregnancy Care Centre does,” Coop said.

Sudbury Pure Country 91.7 and CTV News Northern Ontario are both divisions of Bell Media