Last Updated on: 8th September 2026, 02:15 pm
It gets hard sometimes when you have to pay attention to the news, but no matter what, I always do my best to hold on to my belief that in spite of what feels like literally everything now, people are, over all, good and well-meaning. And while I’m sure that’s true of most of the folks donating to these people’s wildfire relief store, the mere thought that enough folks haven’t been that they felt the need to take time out of their lives to say knock it the hell off kinda makes me want to go back to bed forever.
The store in Penticton is stocked with donations from the community such as racks of men’s and women’s clothing, along with school supplies and personal hygiene items evacuees need to rebuild their lives.
But while Patan is grateful for every contribution, he and his volunteers have noticed some people treating the store as a place to dispose of goods that are better suited for the landfill.
“We opened a box together and it was half-used bars of soap, half-used makeup,” Patan said.
In one case, a shirt donated to the store reeked of cat urine.
“We would open bags where, you know, you had to take it outside because it smelled so bad,” he said.He added, volunteers were making daily trips to the landfill just to dispose of these items.
Patan said he doesn’t believe people are donating maliciously, but said the issue escalated to where he felt he had to speak up.
“Where is that fine line of what should we be giving?” he asked.
He posted online, asking people not to use the store as a space to clean out their homes. He said that after everything evacuees have lost, they still deserve to feel human.
It’s worth pointing out that the person who started the store also lost his family home in one of the fires. That he could go through that and still find the time, the energy and the will to try to help so many others is an amazing thing. Also amazing, to me at least, is managing to kindly say that he doesn’t believe there’s malicious intent involved in some of these drop-offs. I’m not sure I could manage that, to be honest.
If you’d like to donate something better than the soap from your ass or a cat piss shirt (Who has one of those just lying around?), here’s how you can help.
TOTAL-LOSS FAMILIES FREE STORE
& DONATION DROP-OFF:
2130 Government Street, Penticton
10 AM – 4 PM • 7 DAYS A WEEK
Our Community GoFundMe is another important way to help:
https://gofund.me/b99d9854c
It is helping fill the gaps for total-loss families who may be uninsured, underinsured or discovering things simply aren’t covered.