Sheridan shares the warmth with international students

BY SARA BAWAR

Sheridan’s annual Winter Coat Drive is back and accepting donations. The initiative aims to help new or returning international students stay warm and protected during Canadian winter.

During the colder months, international students often struggle with the change in temperature. Senior support services officer Sparshi Kehar manages the drive every year and has noticed a trend. “As we have often seen, most International students don’t have means to buy new winter items and buying winter gear can be really expensive,” says Kehar.

“In the middle of October, we post an article on Sheridan Insider so that students, professors and other staff members can donate clean and gently used winter items,” Kehar adds.

The drive runs every year and is organized by the International Centre. Sheridan College has more then 6,000 international students from 100 different countries. The International Centre’s guide reminds students how important it is that they have appropriate winter gear. Students coming from warmer climates have never experienced temperatures as low as -20C in Canada.

Sheridan international student, Jaspreet Pandher is in the New Media program at Trafalgar Campus. Pandher, who is originally from India, says “I’m extremely excited and also really worried about the extreme winters because I’ve never seen that before”.

Sheridan international student, Jaspreet Pandher is in the New Media program at Trafalgar Campus. Pandher, who is originally from India, says “I’m extremely excited and also really worried about the extreme winters because I’ve never seen that before”. I’m not fully prepared. I have a winter jacket, boots and a scarf but I still feel cold because I’m not used to this winter,” adds Pandher.

Sheridan students, and faculty are encouraged to donate gently used winter items such as coats, gloves, scarves, and hats. Those who wish to donate their items have from now till the end of the winter season at the International Centre at Davis Campus (B126). The International Centre at Trafalgar and HMC are also collecting coats. Visit the Sheridan Insider website for drop-off times.