Friday, December 24, 2021

"Shelter's door seems like the right place to be"/ "No limits to what we can do"/ "Homeless shelter at Commonwealth Stadium opens tonight as city deals with extreme cold"






Nov. 7, 2016 "Shelter's door seems like the right place to be": Today I found this life essay by Larry Matthews in the Globe and Mail:

“Anyone numbers 25-30 – any number 30 and under!”

I’m standing in the door of our church, inviting in our homeless guests huddled outside in the cold and dark, five at a time. People arrive hours before we open, so we distribute lineup numbers to keep things reasonably fair.

“Numbers 30-35 –35 and under!”

Men and women crowd past me into our warm foyer. Many carry all they own in heavy bundles. Exhausted from another day on the streets, they just want to get inside, get downstairs, get off their feet and get warm.

This is guest registration at our version of Out of the Cold, at Blythwood Road Baptist Church. We are one node in an informal network of churches and synagogues in Toronto that open their buildings to feed and shelter homeless guests.

We’re all run by volunteers and funded by donations. Together, we create a patchwork of overnight havens during the coldest months, outposts of warmth for those at risk on the streets and understandably fearful of large permanent shelters. Similar efforts dot cities across Canada.

No public money comes to us. But many groups, ours included, accept support provided by Dixon Hall, a venerable social service agency. The City of Toronto funds their excellent staff to help keep the peace and connect our guests to other services.

It’s a noble effort. In January, it will be 22 years for our church. And many nights I have sorely wished to quit.

“40 and under – 40 and under!” I sound like a carnival barker, calling into the dark.

Our corps of volunteers is a marvel of community spirit. The camaraderie is sweet.

Some come from a variety of churches; others have no church, or have other faiths. We are neighbours, co-workers, friends or simply like-minded people making a place for people who have nothing. Many bond with our guests, sharing their stories and friendship.

At our site, for 22 Saturday nights from November through March, we provide meals, a mat and a blanket, a used-clothing service and a warm, safe place to sleep.

We typically serve dinner to about 125-140 people, generally overwhelming our dining space, our kitchen and especially our bathrooms. (I will not describe the cleanup challenges.) We have room for 60 guests to sleep overnight.

We are rewarded with a sense of doing the right thing. We are enriched by getting to know our guests and their stories. And we are witness to many touching human moments, people gathered around the piano, or acts of generosity and kindness between guests.

“45 and under!”

Some guests are with us for years; some come and go, moving on, making the giant leap into housing, or encountering tragedy. Often we never know.

And doubts and discouragement dog us.

Out of the Cold was intended to be temporary, to prevent people from freezing in the streets, until government programs made things better. We no longer kid ourselves: our ragtag patchwork “Out of the Cold” now is a line in Toronto’s official annual winter plan for caring for people who have no homes.

Perhaps to be certain that we recognize our own ineffectiveness, poverty advocates and activists regularly criticize us for relieving pressure on public programs and officials.

Those of us with long experience deflect suggestions from new volunteers to add features to our programs, join coalitions or take part in protests. Our experience is that we will limp across the season’s finish line at the end of March with a guilty sense of relief; relief, because we are running out of steam; guilty, because nothing has changed, except that by spring the weather itself is no longer life-threatening.

We know our limitations. And I hate our limitations.

I wish we had a more appropriate building and better skills. I hate saying “no” to doing more.

Asking myself if we simply make matters worse tempts me to walk away.

Maybe this is what is meant by burnout. If so, my remedy came from Danny.

Danny has been our church custodian for several years. He’s also a member of our church and a volunteer in Out of the Cold since we began. He shoulders a lot of behind-the-scenes physical work, and then takes on even more as a volunteer.

Danny is also a drummer, an artist and something of a philosopher. One evening, I aired my discomforts with him. He was thoughtful for a while.

“The problem is,” he said “that we want the movie. We want a story arc: We want to know how it turns out. But we can’t.

“This is a black-and-white photo of a beautiful moment. We don’t know what came before. Or what comes next. We just have to appreciate the scene.”

I have felt better since then. Danny’s wisdom took root in my psyche.

Objectively, nothing has changed. But I am no longer put off by the very program I help to run.

The big picture remains depressing. But on a freezing winter night, the front door to Out of the Cold seems like the right place to be; calling numbers out into the dark seems the right thing to do.

Perhaps, even a thing of beauty.

Larry Matthews lives in Toronto.



Nov. 9, 2016 "No limits to what we can do": Today I found this life essay by Rachel Rothstein in the Globe and Mail: 


I am a very emotional person. Maybe it’s part of my personality or maybe it’s because I fall under the category of moody 17-year-old girl.
 
I’m emotional when I get a bad mark. I’m emotional when I get in a fight with my friends. I’m emotional when I hear about a tragedy in the world.

The last one is part of human nature. We naturally feel sad when we hear the news that someone has passed away unexpectedly or that a catastrophe is happening on the other side of the world. It’s sincere, but it’s brief. I am occasionally guilty of this.

My entire mindset on what constitutes a tragedy changed in May, however, when I was part of the 2016 March of the Living. This is a two-week Holocaust-education trip for which Grade 11 students travel to Poland for one week and to Israel for the next.

The two weeks exposed me to such atrocities that it seemed they must have been separate from the world we live in, that they could not have happened in our time.

I placed a wooden sign on the train tracks to Birkenau to commemorate the 9,000 people killed daily in the death camp.

I stared at the masses of hair that had been shaved to humiliate prisoners arriving in Auschwitz.

I stood in gas chambers in Majdanek, where more than 800,000 people were poisoned with Zyklon B gas.

I walked through what is left of Treblinka.

I mourned for the 400 children who were brought to a forest and shot in pits in Tikochin.

I listened to survivors recount the times they were forced to shovel up masses of corpses, some of whom were their friends and family.

I found myself in the shadows of a catastrophe that has no direct connection to my current life.

It’s as if you were given a tour of the Bataclan theatre, where one of the Paris attacks took place. You stand in the footsteps of people who have lost the meaning of their lives – it is an indescribable feeling.

On each bus of the trip, a Holocaust survivor accompanied the group and we were able to experience a small part of their lives. We listened to their testimonies at the places where they occurred – such as a barrack in Birkenau. 

Susan, the survivor on my bus, was in hiding as a child. Bill was a slave labourer for the BMW car company. Nate was a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

For the first time in my life, I was exposed to a new magnitude of pain: a pain so deep it clouds your mind and governs every inch of your body; an emotional pain so brutal it becomes physical. 

It is the pain that comes from seeing your mother shot before you; it is the agony of watching helplessly as your brother is whisked away to a gas chamber. It is an all-consuming, life-altering pain that one can never forget.

I could not fathom how the survivors had continued on with their lives – and yet they had. Their ability to overcome such horrors showed me that, in the end, maybe strength can conquer pain.

I learned much more than I could have ever imagined during this trip. I developed an appreciation of what it means to have family, to be healthy, to be alive.

We hear about tragedies on the news and we feel sympathy for a few minutes, then we continue to pour our coffee and text our friends because the pain isn’t real to us. 

We hear the stories of victims of terrorist attacks and car accidents, of people struck by illness and misfortune, but we are not able to truly understand the extent of their suffering.

I saw with my own eyes physical evidence of atrocities and heard personal recollections of them. Because of this experience, I was able to uncover the true depths of pain and how to better empathize with victims.

I learned something that had such an effect on me, it changed the way I look at the world.

Imagine a line. This is the spectrum of humanity. At one extreme, we have good and far removed, at the other, we have evil. This spectrum is what we visualize as humans’ full potential. The Holocaust extends beyond the boundaries of evil; it is immeasurable. The pain of the victims is immeasurable.

But there is much more to the spectrum. If so much evil can exist, to the point that it has no limit, then the same applies to the other end. 

We hold the ability to do so much good for humanity, more than imaginable and more than can be measured. 

We have infinite power to do good in our own hands.

So after your few seconds of reflection to mourn a tragedy that isn’t directly related to you, think of how lucky you are to be alive and remember that your potential to bring goodness to the world has no limit.



My opinion: I like to read about charity and helping people, because I like to help people.  Also when I read this, I feel positive and happy.  Do you? 

It's okay if you don't read this topic because you find this boring.  




This week's theme is about charity:

"Toronto startup grows and gives back with weighted blankets"/ "Music business's guardian angel now needs a hand"




"Good Food for Good has a special sauce for success"/ "People are eating up fast- food fashion like hotcakes"






My week:


Dec. 17, 2021 Tree Sisters:


Making restoration the new normal

TreeSisters is a UK registered social change and reforestation charity that places tropical forest restoration into everyone’s hands. Through individuals and businesses that give back to Nature every month, TreeSisters has so far funded the planting of over 20 million trees across 12 locations in Brazil, Borneo, Cameroon, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Nepal and West Papua.

We are actively encouraging the cultural shift required to grow from a consumer to a restorative culture. We encourage feminine leadership by providing resources, experiences and communities that inspire personal and collective action on behalf of the trees. 




"Homeless shelter at Commonwealth Stadium opens tonight as city deals with extreme cold": Today I found this on CBC news:



With Edmonton under an extreme cold warning, a temporary, 24/7 shelter for people experiencing homelessness opens Thursday evening at Commonwealth Stadium.

Operated by The Mustard Seed, the shelter will provide day and night accommodation, three meals per day and access to showers and hygiene items. Users will have access to secure storage space for their belongings.

Initial capacity will be for 50 people, but will increase to 200 by Monday, the city said in a news release Thursday. The shelter will operate until the end of March 2022. 

Once the shelter is fully operational, users will have access to services that can help them transition out of the shelter system.

The Commonwealth Stadium shelter will include an overdose prevention and treatment site operated by Boyle Street Community Services.

The shelter and overdose prevention and treatment site are funded by the province, with support from the city.

"We are grateful to our partners at the province and in the homeless-serving sector for quickly coming together to create additional shelter space for vulnerable Edmontonians this winter," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said in a news release Thursday.

"By working together, we can keep people safe in the short term and create long-term solutions that will eliminate the need for temporary shelters in the future." 

The city said The Mustard Seed has an urgent need for donations of winter wear such as coats, boots, and gloves. More information can be found at: theseed.ca/edmonton-urgently-needed-items.


Dec. 19, 2021 Donate bus tickets: My grandma had 6 youth/ senior bus tickets that will expire by Dec. 31.  She isn't going to take the bus because there is icy sidewalks and she might fall.  My parents can drive her.

I could go shopping, but I avoid the malls during the holiday season because it's so busy.  We don't exchange gifts in my family so there isn't a reason to go there.  It's also very cold like -10 to -20 and lower for the next 2 weeks.

I waited for the bus, and then gave an old envelope of the 6 bus tickets to the bus driver.

I offered the tickets to my friend Sherry, but she said she had a bus pass.
 



Holiday specials:


Dec. 15, 2021 The Simpsons: They make fun of the Hallmark channel and all their Christmas TV movies (and mystery TV movies).  They call this the Heartmark channel and all the tropes like how a woman from the big city comes to a small town.  She meets a guy and they fall in love.

In the episode, a Heartmark producer Mary goes to Springfield where a Christmas TV movie is being filmed.  She stays at the Simpson's home which is an AirBnb.  She falls in love with Skinner.  I like this ep.

Dec. 19, 2021 Law and Order: Organized Crime: There was an ep called "The Christmas Episode", but it was set during the holidays without much celebration. 

52 Clutter- free gifts: I found this on Facebook and posted this.  My friends Colette and Cham liked it.  There are some serious ones like concert, sporting, and movie tickets, gift cards, and then some joke ones.  I prefer to get food like chips, cookies, snacks.



Dec. 17, 2021 "Sweden's giant straw yule goat is like catnip for arsonists — and it's been burned again": 

Rebecca Steiner says she was heartbroken as she watched Sweden's massive straw Christmas goat go down in flames on Friday.

The Gävle Goat — an annual yuletide tradition in the Swedish town of Gävle — was set ablaze on Friday for the first time in five years, reviving a long-running tradition of people trying to destroy it as authorities scramble to stop them.

A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the blaze. 

"My heart really feels for the goat-builders who have put a lot of time and effort in building him. And of course, I feel really sad as well for his fans, and for myself as well," Steiner, the goat's spokesperson, told As It Happens host Carol Off.

"He's this Christmas symbol that's supposed to bring joy and happiness and Christmas feelings. Then someone sabotages this."

To combat the vandals, the town has ramped up security over the years, hiring guards and deploying 24-hour video surveillance. The goat itself is thoroughly doused in flame retardant.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from Reuters. Interview produced by Chris Harbord. 

Sweden's giant straw yule goat is like catnip for arsonists — and it's been burned again | CBC Radio

My opinion: How about you don't build a giant straw yule goat at all?  There are lots of Christmas decorations up like trees in public places and they don't get vandalized.

I am totally fine with other public things being vandalized like the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down.  There is some sort of political message.

Dec. 12, 2021 "New Zealand Man Vaccinated Up To 10 Times In The Same Day": Today I found this article by Josephine Harvey on Yahoo news:

A New Zealand man received as many as 10 COVID-19 vaccinations in one day on behalf of other people, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.

It’s believed that the man was paid to get the shots under the names of other people who wanted to enjoy the privileges granted to vaccinated people but didn’t want to get the shots, the New Zealand news outlet Stuff reported.

New Zealand Ministry of Health vaccine program manager Astrid Koornneef told Stuff that the department was “aware of the issue” and taking it “very seriously.”Health officials are working with law enforcement to investigate the situation. The ministry would not disclose where the incidents took place or who was involved.

“If you know of someone who has had more vaccine doses than recommended, they should seek clinical advice as soon as practicable,” Koornneef said.

Vaccinologist and associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris called the behavior “unbelievably selfish” and said it was taking advantage of someone in need of money, the New Zealand Herald reported.

New Zealand Man Vaccinated Up To 10 Times In The Same Day (yahoo.com)

Dec. 21, 2021 City Centre mall: Today I went there because I was getting stir crazy when I'm at home.  I guess I was pre- shopping for Boxing Day and I will be going to the Shoppers Drug Mart to buy all those holiday cookies and treats that are on sale.

I also looked into the clothing stores. 


Dec. 23, 2021 "Kelly Rowland on giving back, raising 2 boys and co-parenting: 'Turns out I'm the firm one. I don't like that.'": Today I found this article by Erin Donnelly and Olivia Schneider on Yahoo news:


When it comes to spreading holiday cheer, Kelly Rowland doesn't hang about — and we'd expect nothing less from the star and producer of Lifetime's Merry Liddle Christmas series and one-third of the vocals behind the legendary Destiny's Child album 8 Days of Christmas. 

"The day after Halloween, literally, my Christmas tree was up," the singer and mom of two tells Yahoo Life in a new video interview. "I do not play Christmas games. I love to feel Christmas — at least for two months, sometimes two and a half months."

This holiday season Rowland's plans include making sure families in need are also feeling the love by partnering with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in their mission to provide a "support system" for those with ill or injured children. Launched in 1974, the nonprofit organization runs more than 685 family-centered programs worldwide, including accessible health care outreach and housing for families who need to stay close to a child receiving medical treatment. It's a cause that has long been close to Rowland's heart. She first visited Ronald McDonald House locations in the early ‘00s after appearing with Destiny's Child in a McDonald's campaign. 

"I've met these families," she says of meeting people helped by RMHC, which in 2020 provided more than 1.4 million overnight stays. "I've seen the looks on these kids' faces, the relief, the joy, the staff. It's really a lot of heart and joy and love that goes into this. It's all about making families feel and stay connected, and that's the most beautiful part. And who doesn't want to feel that at Christmas time? It's all about family. It's all about joy. It's all about togetherness." 

Kelly Rowland on giving back, raising 2 boys and co-parenting: 'Turns out I'm the firm one. I don't like that.' (yahoo.com)

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