One of Windsor's most beloved holiday traditions is once again on the schedule.
Caesars Windsor, in conjunction with St. Clair College, announced Monday the kickoff of their annual holiday food drive, and the scheduling of a charity concert by local band The S'Aints at the casino's Colosseum venue on December 21.
The concert will benefit a total of 16 food banks across the region, in partnership with the Windsor-Essex Food Bank Association and the Chatham Outreach for Hunger. The hub agency for the food banks is the Unemployed Help Centre. The UHC's executive director, June Muir, tells BlackburnNews.com that having The S'Aints return for a benefit show year after year is a no-brainer.
"They're a fantastic band, they've done this for a number of years, and 100 per cent of the proceeds from the ticket sales will come back to the food banks," said Muir. "In the past they've raised nearly $200,000."
Among the agencies that will be helped by the concert are the Downtown Mission, Drouillard Place, Windsor-area Salvation Army locations, the Windsor Home Coalition and the UHC.
The concert comes at a time when homelessness has been a local hot-button issue, and some local food banks are seeing their supplies depleted because people remain in need. Muir said despite lower unemployment in the region, those numbers aren't telling the whole story.
"When we see people access a food bank, many of them can pay their rent and hydro, but there's not enough money left over to purchase food," said Muir. "We might have a lot of people working, but still need to utilize food banks because they're low-income and they just can't make ends meet."
Tickets to The S'Aints benefit concert in December are on sale now for $25 plus taxes. They can be purchased at the Caesars Windsor box office, all St. Clair College campuses and Devonshire Mall Guest Services. All ages are welcome to attend.
