Sarnia-Lambton Rebound is celebrating a significant donation to its Spectrum Program on this International Transgender Day of Visibility.
Executive Director Carrie McEachran said they've received a $5,000 grant from the Kyle Scanlon Memorial Fund.
"This donation was very much youth driven and it's to create a wardrobe, a closet of program materials, resources, gender affirming clothing for youth, along with being able to pay some inspirational speakers to speak to the youth in our spectrum program," said McEachran.
She said eventually they'll be accepting donated items for the wardrobe, so anyone interested can give them a call.
Rebound created Sarnia-Lambton's first drop-in for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited and questioning [LGBT2SQ] youth, ages 14 to 24, in 2013.
"We provide the resources for the youth that support mentorship with other youth who are going through the exact same thing as them. So, we do everything that we can here to just make them comfortable in their own skin."
Canada's largest LGBT2SQ community centre, "The 519" in Toronto, established the fund in 2015 to memorialize Scanlon, a long-time staff member who worked closely with trans communities to support and advance trans inclusion.
International Transgender Day of Visibility is held every March 31 to celebrate the contributions of transgender people to society and raise awareness of the discrimination they face.