Camryn Reiter, a Grade 6 student at Uplands, celebrated her birthday with friends and a few presents but her focus was on helping others.
"I don't need 35 presents," she said was part of her reason for why she asked her friends to bring a donation for the women's shelter instead of presents to her birthday party.
Her 22 friends raised $312 that she then gave to Ksan House Society Nov. 2.
Sometimes women have to leave their homes and have no place to go, said Reiter.
They need to come to a shelter to be safe and might not have another pair of shoes, or a toothbrush, she said.
Reiter wants to inspire other youths to help out like she has and said she plans to do this every year.
Ryan Kunar, Grade 12 at Cal, put leaflets in his neighbourhood and used social media to ask for clothing for the shelter.
He asked for jackets, gloves, scarves, sweaters, shirts, pants, towels, bedding, shoes and any other clothing items no longer needed.
Homelessness being a big issue right now made it even more of a reason to collect clothing and other items for people.
He couldn't help out with housing but could donate items.
Reminder leaflets went out two days before he was to collect the donations and said that people could leave them on their doorsteps if they didn't want to come to their door or were out.
It's the most items he's collected, he said.
Some people even dropped off their donations on his front step.
The bags of clothing filled his parents' minivan to the point where his mom removed the back seat in the vehicle to make more room for everything.