Posted: Dec 22, 2020 6:30 PM MT | Last Updated: December 23, 2020
The Edmonton Convention Centre has been used as a temporary homeless shelter since late October. (Codie McLachlan/CBC)
Partners at the Edmonton Convention Centre are celebrating Christmas this year despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The temporary shelter opened in late October. The centre has access to showers, laundry, ceremonial support for Indigenous peoples, regular meals and sleeping spots, among other support services.
Although holiday celebrations will look a bit different this year, there will special meals and gifts to mark the occasion.
"[We'll have] a Christmas lunch service as well as a traditional turkey meal for the evening and volunteers will be handing out gifts to each participant that is on site and so that'll be a bag of essential items — socks, mittens and additional things they might need, some baked goods donated by local bakeries," said Scarlet Bjornson, marketing and communications coordinator at Bissell Centre.