SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - With the fear of bed bugs swirling around the city, the Yellowknife YWCA made the difficult decision last week to stop taking donations until it could figure out a way to make sure items coming into its Rockhill Apartments transitional home weren't infested.

YWCA’s handy-man Jim Walton loads the first shipment of donations into the 40 -foot sea can container donated and dropped off by Weatherby Trucking on Wednesday, Jan. 5. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photo

"These donations are really important to us and people really depend on them," said Julie Green, director of community relations for the Yellowknife YWCA.

"But when the health department said that there was a potential bed bug infestation, we started to worry because we take so many donations."

On Tuesday, Jan. 4, the YWCA decided that it could not take any more donations.

"It only takes one bag that's contaminated, then there's the potential for wider contamination," Green said.

One idea the YWCA was toying with to fix the dilemma was to somehow acquire a sea can, a large metal container used to ship freight. Duane Fleming, the territory's environmental health officer, said placing items in one of these containers and leaving them for three days in -15 C or colder weather will get rid of the bed bugs. So if the YWCA could save and purchase a sea can, the donations could sit safely frozen until they were ready to be brought in.

Green expected acquiring a sea can would be a long process, maybe months.

She did not expect the speed at which help came.

On Wednesday morning Kelley Weatherby was listening to the radio and heard the news that Rockhill would not be accepting any more donations. Weatherby's trucking company uses sea cans to store supplies and parts and keep them safe from wildlife, theft or the elements.

"We happened to have an extra large one in the yard," Weatherby said.

"It just seemed crazy that we had one here they could use and they would be turning people away."

By 9 a.m. that morning Weatherby called Green with the news that the YWCA could use the 40-foot sea can until May.

Weatherby added, to Green's surprise, that the sea can could be delivered to the YWCA that afternoon at no cost.

"We delivered it right after lunch hour," Weatherby said.

"We wanted to get it right away to them."

By 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon the first deliveries were already being packed into the container, which now sits in the parking lot beside Rockhill Apartments.

Green is happy to be able to take donations again so quickly, and said that the YWCA's clothing exchange and donations to families in need should by next week, Jan. 12.

"People come here and they don't have much of anything," said Green. Families staying in the Rockhill Apartments take the furniture, bedding and other items with them when they transition out on their own, so Green is always looking for donations.

"It is more than just a place to live, it's a place to come and learn new skills that will make you more independents," she said.

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