Generosity will come to life for the next while at Parkland Mall with donations going to three participating charities.

Running until May 7th, Mosaics of Hope is taking place at the mall encouraging members of the community to purchase coloured tiles, which will be used to create mosaics.

This year’s participating charities include Shalom Counselling Centre, United Way of Central Alberta and Ronald McDonald House Charities Central Alberta.

Each of the charities begin with a black and white mural for people to fill with their purchased $5 coloured tiles. The murals will be on display for three weeks, and each charity has 750 tiles to sell.

“Parkland Mall matches every tile sold so each of the three organizations could walk away with $7,500 when they’re done,” said Melody McKnight, marketing director at Parkland Mall.

She said in previous years, most of the organizations sell out during their three weeks. Last year and this year, she said, they extended the event by a week or two, and let the charities take their mosaics back to their office to sell the few remaining tiles, which they still match.

“Part of the advantage of being at the mall, we like to have them here because it brings some traffic in for them and they can connect with the community,” said McKnight.

She used Shalom Counselling as an example, saying she’s often heard questions of where are they located, what’s their contact number, etc.

“There’s obviously a huge need for their services and people are just finding out who they are even though they’ve been around for quite a while.”

It’s all about people giving back, and McKnight said people can see their donation come to life and find out about services they may not have known existed.

“In past years we’ve had organizations here that have connected with major donors and people who have come back and made a big donation to that project because they connected here at the mall.”

carlie.connolly@reddeerexpress.com