Tag Archive: Volunteer

Full Circle

Devon post on November 9th, 2012
Posted in Extreme Wet Weather Program Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Executive Director, Jonquil Hallgate holding “Baby” one of our furrier guests at last years Extreme wet Weather Shelter

It is a tad bit ironic the first chance we have to update the site comes right before we begin where we left off during out last post.

Every year the volunteers of SUMS go into shelter season expecting that we will be able to help as many people as possible. This year we are going in knowing better, our guests will do more for us than we will ever be able to do for them.

Often when asked what it feels like to come to shelter at SUMS guests can be heard saying things such as “I am not going to a shelter, I am going home” we try very hard to make sure that the people who come to us feel exactly that.

Although everyone sleeps on the floor, this is a basic break down of each evening:

  • 6:00 dinner prep begins
  • 6:15 pm bedding is pulled out and laid down
  • 6:30 pm the tv/dvd is out and ready to begin
  • 7:00 pm guests are welcomed in from the cold and asked to settle in – Usually while we wait for dinner, we take the time to settle in with everyone, “check-in” is where we sign everyone in and ask about their day, talk about the news etc
  • 7:30 pm dinner is served and the volunteers join the guests for a healthy hot meal
  • 8:00-11:00 pm we hang out with the guests, offer companionship, play games or watch a movie
  • 11:00 pm lights out – which means our guests sleep while the volunteers prepare lunches for those going to work and breakfast for those who are not. If we are not hosting a meal the following day then everyone receives  a hot breakfast and bagged lunch.

So there you have it, a day in the life of our SUMS Shelter.

As always we are forever looking for items to help the stay of our guests a little more comfortable, if you are able please consider donating. All Donations may be dropped off Monday-Friday between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm at 13938 102 ave Surrey BC Canada

  • Clean warm blankets
  • Clean Socks
  • Granola Bars
  • New Unopened Coffee
  • New Unopened Dry Hot Chocolate
  • Towels
  • Gently Used DVDs (Nothing Rated R Please)

We at Surrey Urban Mission would like to send a special thank you to our friends over at Central City Athletic Center who graciously allow our friends to shower for free during the shelter season. This is a great aid for men and women who are either going to school while homeless or job hunting. Our appreciation goes to all the staff and volunteers.

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Enter Father Frost

Devon post on January 12th, 2012
Posted in Extreme Wet Weather Program Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yet again we open our doors, our hands and our hearts to help our fellow neighbors without a place to call home. It is 7:34pm as I write this, but I know that as the night goes on more faces will join us this evening.

Tonight’s home-made dinner is veggie soup, pasta and salad – the same as last night. It is heart breaking to see these men, some I know, some after all these years I have never met.

The sheer volume of people that come through our doors that we just do not know is humbling. Every time we think that we have helped someone it seems to never end. A finger in the dyke as some have said.

As I write this I think about the fact that tonight I will go home and walk my dog, I will watch my tv, eat in my kitchen and shower in my bathroom. I will do these things because I am blessed by God, I am surrounded with an amazing support team and I wonder quite often about my friends who will sleep on mats like the ones you see in the above picture. I think about them on a daily basis and wonder if what we are doing is ever going to be enough. I don’t know if enough is the right word but I am so greatful to the volunteers, the support team here at the Mission and Jagrup and his friends, family and group who have helped us through out Christmas, the city of Surrey and all those who are fighting this fight of poverty and homelessness.

Thank God for all of these people who are stepping up to the plate and doing what they can to help their fellow man.

Pray for my friends this eve readers, your prayers are answered…I know mine have been.

 

Devon

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Jagrup Brar

Jhallgate post on January 5th, 2012
Posted in MLA On Welfare Tags: , , , , ,

What an eye opening journey that Jagrup has embarked on.  Some think that this is a publicity stunt.  If I were a politician wanting media attention I can think of many things that would generate interest without disrupting my life to such a great extent.

Even if he has opportunities that others who live in poverty don’t during this month the fact that Jagrup is willing to disrupt his normal life for 4 weeks  to meet people, learn names and stories and see how circumstances force people into poverty and or keeps them there is admirable.

This isn’t about Jagrup and what opportunities he enjoys during this month that perhaps others don’t.   It is the story of  single parents and their children, seniors, aboriginal people, working individuals making minimum wages, refugees and newcomers to Canada, people living with disabilities, people who have lost their job because of the economy, women who have left abusive situations often with children and migrant workers whose employers take advantage of them who struggle each day to make it through to the next and about people living with life threatening and chronic illnesses.   It is about people who are homeless and don’t have a place to stay when it is cold during the winter but not cold enough for Extreme Weather Shelters to be open.

It is about the barriers and challenges that disallow people to ever move forward out of poverty.  It is also hopefully a story of how systems and individuals take advantage and make money from people forced to live in less than acceptable conditions.

No one in this city should be homeless,  go without food to eat, have to decide whether to pay the electricity or gas bill and go without the other because there isn’t enough to pay both, have to decide between bread or milk today for their children or let their baby go without diapers, do without medical supplies that aren’t covered by medical coverage, not be able to afford to get their teeth attended to etc. etc. !

It is the story of the kindness of strangers and small organizations that create opportunities and hope for neighbors.

Jonquil Hallgate

 

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Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Blessed Yule

Devon post on December 14th, 2011
Posted in Celebrate Tags: , , , , , , ,

I know I haven’t written in awhile but I wanted to pen a special note and let you guys all know what I have been up to lately. To the left of this post is a delicious picture of the cookies our youth group children made for the men and women of our Extreme Wet Weather Shelter.

Not only were the cookies phenominal, but after they were baked, decorated and iced within an inch of their lives *and our hearts* the children came upstairs to hand them out and sing a Christmas Carol which was a nice event for the people in the shelter.

 To the right is what our chapel, lunch room and general all purpose room looks like when it is filled with mats. Consecutively for the last twenty nights it has been full (30) with thirty men and women who needed a place to stay. Needless to say it really is a wonderful job to have if you can find it, but it has been rather tiring. I have learned in the last couple of days not only who my real -true- friends are, but also that I am a horrible awful person when I do not get any sleep. I have hurt some feelings and damaged some relashionship, including one with my Vampire out of shear exhaustion and frustration at the issue of homelessness. I guess I let my exhaustion hurt some feelings, and I hope that I can make up for that but we’ll see.

In any case, beyond that I really haven’t been doing -too- much other then working sleeping and trying to fit in an NA meeting here and there when I can. It hasn’t been easy, even when you consider the fact that the NA meetings happen in the same room your looking at above, while shelter is downstairs. My main focus is always on the shelter, making sure people have blankets or food – it sounds silly to say but its almost as if everything else leaves my brain and heart when this time of year comes around. My only concern is the people who need me most, which again is another reason I get so awful and testy towards my friends…I really truly should work on that.

One of the great traditions my family participates in this time of year is our Christmas Dinner. I call it “ours” because it is now Fifteen years the three of us have been involved in doing a large community dinner, our tenth or so with Surrey Urban Mission I think? I don’t know the numbers I just know that is has been a lot of years.

I love doing this dinner, and I am going to tell you why;

Fifteen years ago I was new to British Columbia and I did not really understand the meaning of Poverty, even though my family never really had a lot of money, mom had always managed to make Christmas exceptional, which always no matter what included Santa Claus.

Not everyone as I learned however knew or celebrated the Santa part of Christmas. So this year in particular, I had asked a little boy if Santa had come, his mother to my chagrin started to cry. I felt so awful when my mom told me “Not everyone celebrates Christmas, or even celebrates Santa because they cannot afford to” as soon as I heard that, I went into the Church’s back cupboard and found a broken and I do mean broken Batmobile toy and told the little boy that Santa must have left it for him at the Church. He really did not care who had left it for him, all he cared about was that he had a Batman toy. To him that made Christmas perfect.

I do not know what happened to that little boy, I wish I did, what I do know however is that the following year my younger brother cleaned out his closet and brought all of his old toys for the children to play with and take him.

Our third year in the Surrey Fire Department got in on the mix and donated brand new toys, food and clothing for us to give away and this year our fifteenth year as a family celebrating this amazing holiday is going to be even better.

Up until this morning we had no idea where our Church *Surrey Urban Mission* would host our Christmas dinner but now we know we will be at the Surrey Legion, which means we will have even more room to give away even more, and better we’ll have more room for the “legion” of volunteers that are coming, to sit chat and hang out with our family. I as silly as it may sound, really do consider the people who have been coming to this dinner for years, as family. They are apart of my family tradition and I cannot wait. It seriously is the absolute best time of the year and nothing compares to it. So from all of us here at Surrey Urban Mission, my mom Jonquil, my brother Christopher and my extended street family we wish you the very best of holidays and hope that you feel even a fraction of the joy we feel during this amazing time.

Blessed Be,

Devon Hallgate

 

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