Wednesday, November 28, 2007

One paycheque away from homelessness

This story in today's Record has been the lead story in the local news for a few days now - A New Home, a Fresh Start.

I find it shocking that someone who worked as a temp for a company like RIM as recently September could find himself out on the street so soon afterwards.

The response from the community has been overwhelming for Kerwin Harrison and his two dogs.

Last night the three of them slept in a warm home for the first time in five weeks; thanks to the generosity of a stranger.

Putting a human face to the poverty of the working poor is very motivating.

I'll be thinking of Kerwin when I gather food for the Food Bank this Christmas.


* * * *
Update: Platty - Attention all Bloggers.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

good morning, joanne!

wha??? you mean nasty, mean conservatives actually give to food banks??? Imagine!

:)

(just in case the sarcasm is not apparent to others...that was my attempt at sarcasm :)

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Tori - lol! I was thinking that this post could have easily have been in Liblogs or Blogging Dippers.

My thoughts on charity and homelessness is to let the community take charge first, and if there is a short-fall, then various levels of government should step in.

Anonymous said...

We conservatives help our fellow "man" by doing rather than letting the Government talk about "doing". Long live the individual.

Good on ya JJ ... I'm a United Way campaign chair at work and I love it.

WCTeddi

Platty said...

Great timing with this post Jo. I am working in Saskatchewan this winter and I can tell you that it is very, very cold (-32 with the wind chill) right now.

I could not imagine trying to brave these conditions out on the street.

I will be going out today to see what I can do for those who are indeed in that position.

==

===

Anonymous said...

Whoa, whoa, whoa.....Tories caring about the poor? I never thought I'd see the day. What's next? Dogs and cats living together?

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Tories caring about the poor? I never thought I'd see the day

I'm hurt. When you prick us, do we not bleed?

Roy Eappen said...

I have long said that we should all have a poor family to look after. The state has separated us from the poor. We assume the state will look after them , whne that is often not the case.
Charity is not an option but a duty.

Anonymous said...

And yes cats and dogs do live together at least in "our world".
They often disagree but more often than not they live together in harmony, enjoying life, looking out for the poor and disadvantaged and as always very astute when it involves the "laws of the jungle".

Political Hay Eh?

WCTeddi

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Well said, Dr. Roy. The attitude of the left is to rail against the government regarding poverty.

Maybe we should be looking in the mirror. And it would help us to lose weight if we gave some of our food to others.

Möbius said...

.....Tories caring about the poor? I never thought I'd see the day.

Brilliant.

Tories care about helping the poor, the left cares about the government helping the poor with someone else's money.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

the left cares about the government helping the poor with someone else's money.

Exactly.