Gary Moore

The newly-formed Okanagan chapter of the Soldiers of Odin took to Vernon's streets and parks Saturday night.



The group of fifteen men and women met at the Cineplex parking lot to ready themselves for a two-hour patrol which would take them into the darker parts of the city picking up used needles, handing out care packages to the homeless and deterring crime.



"We are going through the red zones. These are areas where people have been mugged or victims of violent attacks," said vice-president of the Okanagan chapter of Soldiers of Odin Tylor Herold.

"And while we are walking through there we will meet some transients and we have some care packages we made up for them to get them through the week."



Soldiers of Odin are an international group founded in Finland that are known for their anti-immigration policies and gained momentum after some migrant-related crime incidents in Europe and Scandinavia but their purpose is to help everyone regardless of their ethnic background.



Herold wants to distance his group from the racist stigma that hangs over the Soldiers of Odin organization.

"We keep the same name because our underlying principles are the same and that's just to protect the community," said Herold.

"Here in Canada our mandate is different, we don't have the problem with refugees here. We are a multicultural nation and we welcome every ethnic origin into our group."



Homeless senior Sandra Phillips who emerged from the darkness of the wooded area to receive a care bag from one of the group's members said, "It blessed (her) entire soul".