Kingston youth continues to give with ‘Gnome for a Home’

A local 10-year-old, Lylia Essaddsm, founded Gnome for a Home to help raise awareness about homelessness in Kingston and help them with food and shelter.

This started around Christmastime in 2018 while walking downtown Kingston with her family, where she noticed the number of homeless people who were not in the Christmas spirit and were unable to celebrate the holidays. She believed that Santa Claus could not visit the homeless people because they do not have a house.

Lylia started by hand drawing some Christmas cards to sell. She raised $1,000 and donated all the profits to Martha’s Table.

In February, she hand drew some cards for valentines day and raised $2,000 and donated it all to local charities that help fight homelessness in Kingston.

The charitable entrepreneur also started making cards and colouring books and selling them to kids so they can colour them and give them to their parents as gifts.

Most recently, Lilya donated a number of Mother’s Day cards to kids that are in Kingston Interval House to be able to celebrate Mother’s Day with their mothers.

Lilya will be selling Gnome for a Home tote bags to help raise awareness about the environmental impacts of plastic bags and all the proceeds will go to local charities.

Habitat for Humanity is partnering with Gnome for Home in hopes to make the campaign bigger and international.

To support Gnome for a Home or to make a purchase, check out their FaceBook page.