1 / 1 Kit and Kaboodle owner Carl Johnson donates $92,000 to the Orange Shirt Society. From left to right: OSS executive assistant Sarah-Lee Philbrick, Kit and Kaboodle owner Carl Johnson, OSS CEO and founder Phyllis Webstad, OSS culture and events support Cheryl Chapman and OSS office manager Sara Fulton.Andie Mollins, Local Journalism Initiative Advertisement
The Orange Shirt Society accepted a $92,000 donation Tuesday, Jan. 14 from Carl Johnson, owner of Kit and Kaboodle in Williams Lake.
"It helps keep our doors open," said Phyllis Webstad, founder and CEO of the Orange Shirt Society (OSS). The non-profit organization was formed in 2015 to help advance Indian Residential School Reconciliation and to promote the 'Every Child Matters' message.
Webstad said the donation will go towards anything which keeps the conversation alive about the ongoing impacts of residential schools.
"Some people have PHDs, and they never learned about it," she said, noting there hasn't yet been a graduating class in Canada which was taught about residential schools from kindergarten to Grade 12.
There will be soon, however, and the OSS is already preparing for the 2026 graduating class.
"We want to have a ceremony, put Canada on notice that this is happening," Webstad said, thinking of all the students who will soon be leaving school with some understanding of what continues to impact Indigenous people across Canada today.
"Reconciliation is advancing...and things will probably advance beyond my wildest dreams."
Webstad thanked Johnson for his part in making this happen. This isn't the first time Johnson has donated to the OSS; he's known Webstad and her story for over 20 years, and became the organization's main orange shirt supplier a few years ago.
"She blows me away," Johnson said as he tried to hold back tears and shared a hug with Webstad. Johnson told the Tribune the shadow of residential schools and colonization has weighed on his heart for a long time.
"I can't turn my back to what is," Johnson said. "When I found out I would have an opportunity to step up, I did."
Prior to supplying the orange shirts, Johnson was selling Orange Shirts in his store which he would purchase from Webstad's first Orange Shirt supplier. Johnson said Webstad would only get about $2 for every shirt that supplier sold, and while he gave her more than that from his sales, he never felt good about it. A day came when her supplier ran out of shirts, and that's when Johnson stepped in.
"I had 7,000 shirts in my back pocket," he said. And so, Johnson has been ordering the shirts for Webstad ever since, and from those sales he gives an annual donation to the OSS.
Cheryl Chapman, culture and events support with the OSS, said the organization's work is pulling truth into written history.
"As we share the story and we set up opportunities for others to learn and understand, ask questions," Chapman said, noting those who haven't experienced the impacts will never understand but can still listen, learn and make a difference.
"Have enough compassion and empathy to do something about it, even if it's stopping somebody when they're being prejudiced or ignorant," she said.
Chapman emphasized the importance of bringing the truth into every conversation and said that meant listening to oral history without judgment and without involving one's own perceptions into another's story.
Webstad travels across Canada to share her own story and inspire conversation, and said Johnson's contributions over the years help to keep that conversation happening.
The $92,000 donated this year represents 10,000 shirts sold and brings his overall donations to the OSS at almost half a million dollars.