Friday, November 19, 2010 Maple Ridge comedian serves up humour to aid those living with prostate cancer.
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ary Annivers 1985-2010
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Charity
Season of giving commences
From today until Christmas Eve, people in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows will be urged, once again, to help fill Salvation Army kettles.
caused tragedy and crisis.” The community’s affluent are also very generous and have been strong supporters of the work done by the Maple Ridge Salvation Army, Chiu added. The local Salvation Army operates The Caring Place, a shelter and kitchen that serves – on average – 9,000 meals each by Troy Landreville month, up from about 7,000 a tlandreville@mrtimes.com year-and-a-half ago. On the most recent chilly Fishing loose change and bills Monday morning, 55 people out of a pocket or purse and gathered at The Caring Place for dropping them into Salvation breakfast. Army Christmas kettle slots will The Caring Place is a home make a difference. away from home for Chiu. When An example: Last year, the she and her husband, Maj. Ed generosity of people in Maple Chiu, arrived in Maple Ridge in Ridge and Pitt Meadows equated 1997, they became aware of a into more than $68,000, which was promptly funneled back into growing need for a community shelter and gathering place. the community to help the less By 2000, the local Salvation fortunate. Army was serving 100 to 120 The goal of this year’s local meals a day to the needy. Christmas kettle campaign, “There were a couple times which starts today (Friday) and where Ed and I had taken stranruns through to Christmas Eve gers home,” Chiu said. “And (Dec. 24), is equally ambitious there were a couple of times – to the tune of about $72,000. where we’ve brought our own Major Kathie Chiu, executive food or given out of our director of the Maple pockets.” Ridge Salvation Army, Motioning towards believes local residents the window to The possess a giving spirit, Caring Place dining area and will help the local – where close to two church reach its rather dozen men and women lofty goal. shared food, lively con“We are confident versation, and a few this community will tears as a woman buried step up to the plate,” her head in the shoulder Chiu said. “These are of a friend – Chiu said: hard times for people Maj. Kathie Chiu “This is why we do this, who are working; these executive director what you see out there. are even harder times This is what calls us to for people who aren’t. this work. We don’t have a great There’s nothing more scary than income. We work for love. We being faced with absolute povwork for God. God’s love, in the erty.” end, is what compels us.” Chiu said Maple Ridge is not Maple Ridge Salvation Army the most affluent community, so its residents can identify with the volunteer coordinator Miriam Leslie said The Caring Place daily struggles of the needy. clients aren’t always from the “They know what it’s like to struggle to pay the mortgage and homeless community. Some rent or even own homes and are findput food on their tables. People in Maple Ridge have experienced ing it tough to make ends meet in a fragile economy. their own ups and downs in “I never thought this would life,” Chiu said. happen to me,” are words Leslie “There’s a lot of people, here, hears time and again. who have friends, family, neigIt’s this need that makes the hours, people they know through kettle campaign all the more their work, who have had things important, said Leslie, the happen in their lives that have
Linda Whitford is both a volunteer and a client with the local Salvation Army and has been instrumental in helping get the word out to the community about the church’s Christmas kettle campaign.
Troy Landreville/TIMES
Christmas kettle coordinator. “It’s our main fundraiser for the year. It enables us to continue to provide the meals and the shelter,” she said. “It’s a long-standing Christmas tradition,” Leslie elaborated. Kindness has been the driving force behind the international kettle campaign since the idea started in San Francisco in December 1891. Chiu said Christmas is the season when people tend to reach
out to one another: “Christmas is a time of giving, and we’re giving to the needy.” The Good Samaritans who volunteer time to staff the 11 kettles in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are a key component to the campaign, said Leslie, who noted, “the more often we have volunteers at the kettles, the more money we will receive.” “I really encourage people to give up their time because that
definitely makes just as much of an impact as giving money,” she said. The only requirements for a kettle volunteer is a smile and a good attitude. “It’s a nice opportunity to interact with people,” Leslie said. To those who give, she said every penny counts: “I think we all understand that people can only give what they can give.”
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