Can you imagine?  You're from a place where the temperature never dips below zero and you come to Canada to make a better life for yourself.  You arrive in the summer and suddenly, it's November and the air is so cold it hurts your face. 

It's a story we're telling on DiscoverMooseJaw.com today after the local Newcomer Welcome Centre put out a call for donations.  They're asking us to donate winter clothing for the people they work with. 

Brynn Stephanson, Information Advisor at the centre, told us "It seems that they are quite nervous, actually, about the winter." 

It reminds me of a story I've told a number of times - about a young man I was assisting after he arrived here from Africa.  It was a nice, warm, October day when I met with him at his place and among the topics was winter.  I was explaining, as simply as I could, that it was going to become very, very cold - very, very soon.  I wasn't sure he was picking up what I was dropping but then he went to his bedroom and came back with his arms full of winter gear. 

He put it all down on his couch and smiled and said, "Rob, I know.  I have heard.  The cold - it will attack me." 

If you have some winter boots, coats, scarves and mitts you're not using, please consider donating to the local Newcomer Welcome Centre.  It'll help our new friends survive the cold, Canadian winter and, it will warm your heart.