“Every child will have a hot meal on their plate and a gift to open on Christmas day.” – Dan Johnstone
Dan Johnstone, aka Can Man Dan is an outstanding citizen of Edmonton, known for his volunteer and fund raising activities all over Edmonton. He is an anti-poverty activist, and has sent up a city-wide food & toy drive through a series of winter camp outs to support the Edmonton Food Bank & Santa’s Anonymous running throughout the month of December.
He is literally camped out at his listed locations 24 hours a day for the entirety of his set camp outs. Dan eats and sleeps on site, always there to accept donations.
This Weekend:
From December 6 to 9, 2018, Dan is camped out outside of Massive Toy Blowout (2403-91 Street), which is having a huge warehouse sale this weekend as well. I was there yesterday, and there is a huge selection of brand name toys. If you need to shop for toys, this is a great place to go, and Dan is right outside of the doors if you have anything extra to donate!
This camp out is exclusively for Santa’s Anonymous, so his main focus for the weekend is collecting toys – and after just one day, the truck is already starting to fill up. His goal of every child in Edmonton having a gift this year looks like it’s well on it’s way to becoming a reality.
If you miss him this weekend, he still has two more camp outs scheduled for the month:
- 4 Day Winter Campout For Edmonton’s Food Bank – 10am on Thursday, December 13 to 5pm on Sunday, December 16. Location: Heritage Safeway, 2304 109 Street, NW, Edmonton.
- 3 Day Winter Campout For Edmonton’s Food Bank – 10am on Saturday, December 22 to 6pm on Monday, December 24. Location: Southbrook Sobeys, 1109 James Mowatt Trail, SW, Edmonton.
Dan has great energy and is a fantastic guy to just say hi to. If you happen to be close to one of his camp outs, I am sure he would appreciate a friendly hello! If you want to follow his volunteer efforts throughout the year on Facebook, the direct link to the Can Man Dan page is here.
A big thanks to Dan for everything he does for the less fortunate, for children, and anyone else who is fortunate enough to cross paths with him. Here’s to wishing him success in meeting his goals this year!