Woman searching for late father's jacket that was donated to Ottawa Value Village

Nancy Marsden says her late father's Schneider Ski Jacket was donated to an Ottawa Value Village after he passed away this month. Marsden is hoping to track down the individual who purchased the jacket. (Nancy Marsden/submitted)

A former Ottawa resident is appealing for help tracking down her late father's ski jacket, after it was accidentally donated to a Value Village in Ottawa the day he passed away.

"I have many happy memories with my dad in this coat and am devastated it was donated," Nancy Marsden said in a post on Kijiji.

Marsden, who now lives in Virginia, is using social media to assist the search for the jacket in the hopes she can find the item to remember her father, who was once a ski instructor at Camp Fortune.

Marsden tells Newstalk 580 CFRA that her father Stewart Marsden passed away on Nov. 6, and the jacket was donated to the Value Village at Bank Street and Walkley Road the same day.

"My aunt had asked if there's anything I wanted to be kept from the long-term care facility he was at and I said I wanted his blue and purple winter jacket, and I think in the moment she mixed it up and said I wanted a windbreaker," Marsden told CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal Thursday morning.

"Unfortunately, I ended up with a golf windbreaker and not the blue and purple winter jacket I had asked for."

Marsden says once she realized the jacket was donated, her family visited the Value Village on Monday, Nov. 14 to speak with staff and search for the coat.

"Since I've posted lots of things on the Internet, someone said that they saw it at that Value Village at around 5:30 on Sunday, Nov. 13, so it sounds like I missed it by a day," Marsden said about the "last clue" they have to assist the search.

The jacket is a blue and purple Schneider Ski Jacket, with zippers on the front and pockets on both sides of the chest.

"Looking at the inside of the jacket, it has a silver lining and it should also have his name on a sticker inside it because the Glebe Centre labels everything," Marsden said.

Anyone with information about the coat is asked to email Nancy Marsden at [e-mail]. Marsden has posted information about the jacket and the appeal for its return on Facebook, Kijiji, Craigslist, NextDoor, Locanto and the Ottawa Citizen.

Marsden tells Newstalk 580 CFRA the coat has sentimental value to her, as she remembers skiing and skating with her father growing up.

"My father was a ski instructor on weekends at Camp Fortune and he was given this jacket as part of this job in the mid-80s, and he absolutely loved this jacket. He wore it every winter, all the time for the rest of his life," Marsden said.

"So whenever I would see him, because my parents got divorced when I was very young and my brother, my mom and I moved out to Winnipeg I did not get to see him too much, but I just have such fond memories spent skating and skiing and tobogganing with him.

"I just associate that jacket with him so strongly because he wore it all the time."

Marsden says she would be happy to reimburse or purchase a new coat for the individual who bought her father’s jacket at Value Village.

"I really hope that the coat can make its way back to me, because it does have really sentimental meaning to me," an emotional Marsden said.

"I know that if someone purchased it they were looking for something warm to wear; so I'm happy to reimburse them for the coat or buy them a new coat so they can keep warm in winter. I am just hoping to get the coat back."