Ottawa sales rep Colt Charlebois of Keller Williams Ottawa Realty recently spearheaded a campaign to collect 1,000 coats and snowsuits for local charities.

“It all started 20 years ago when I had received a couple of ‘onezies’ as a little guy,” says Charlebois. “My mom was on a pretty tight income after she was laid off of her job and decided to go back to university as a single parent in order to provide a better life for two of us. Fast forward to my seventh year selling real estate. I have been blessed with an abundance of opportunity… I set an ambitious goal (as Realtors love to do) of collecting 1,000 articles and began calling, emailing and posting videos of the campaign to my network of friends, clients and colleagues.”

He says he didn’t even know how 1,000 outerwear would look but “it was a lot!”

With the help of fellow sales reps and Keller Williams staff as well as clients and other businesses, the coats were collected and donations are still coming in. The Ottawa Snowsuit Fund was the main beneficiary and “we also gave some to a family that had lost everything in a home fire this winter and had no insurance. (Sales rep)  Kristen Foster took the lead on that one.”