Herald Christmas Fund transforms Cornerstone Youth’s dream into reality
It was a plan that made sense in a city of nearly 1.3 million people — take their winning program into more communities and, in the process, make a positive impact on kids in all quadrants of Calgary.
In the summer of 2016, though, that was nothing more than a dream for the good people who run Cornerstone Youth Centre, a Calgary charity that is closing in on a quarter century of helping at-risk youth.
“We’ve wanted to do it for such a long time,” says Jeffrey Gray, Cornerstone’s executive director. “But it takes a lot of money to get a new location up and running, not to mention operate it.”
As fall turned to winter last year, Gray, his fellow staff and volunteers at Cornerstone began to realize that they would be getting their own Christmas miracle: they were chosen as one of the 12 recipient charities for the 2016 Calgary Herald Christmas Fund.
Their share of the funds raised — more than $80,000 — made possible the current construction happening in the southeast community of Albert Park-Radisson Heights, several kilometres south of the original location in Mayland Heights.
“I wouldn’t be having this particular conversation with you today if it weren’t for the Herald Christmas Fund,” says a smiling Gray as we chat in the bungalow that back in 1994 was transformed from a residential home into a sanctuary for kids dealing with difficult life situations.
“Being a part of it was nothing short of transformative for us.”
The Calgary Herald Christmas Fund began life in 1991, when a group of journalists decided, in the season of giving, they too wanted to do something to help some of the city’s most needy. Since then, we’ve seen more than $25 million donated by our readers for the carefully selected agencies the Herald supports each year.
For the past two decades, I’ve been one of those lucky enough to participate, sharing the stories of the passionate people who run those charities, along with the incredible clients whose lives, thanks to those agencies’ efforts, have been made better.
This year, the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund’s recipients are, once again, an impressive bunch: the Calgary Sexual Assault Team; Reset (formerly Servants Anonymous Society); Calgary Health Trust/Renfrew Recovery Centre; Calgary Seniors Resource Society; Calgary Counselling Centre; The Mustard Seed; I Can for Kids Foundation; Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre; The Centre for Newcomers; NorthernStars Mothers Milk Bank; Discovery House; and Further Education Society of Alberta.
It’s more than a pleasure for us to employ our storytelling skills to connect them with our fellow Calgarians, who in turn show their generosity by helping them to continue to evolve their offerings. By the following spring each year, though, we’ve all moved on, the journalists to a new batch of news and features, the charities to the good work they continue year-round.
Hearing about Cornerstone Youth, though, seemed a good opportunity to remind our readers of just what a monumental difference their donations, both big and small, make to our city.
On Monday morning, Cornerstone Youth is enjoying a brief moment of quiet. The happy, busy existences of the children it serves, however, are evident everywhere, from the paintingcovered walls on the main floor to the musical instruments downstairs.
Gray says the number of kids needing this after-school program has only grown over the years. “It’s partly the economy, but also because word has gotten out about our programs,” he adds.
The focus here is on children in Grades 6 to 9, which Gray calls “a very vulnerable age” for at-risk kids. “The average recruiting age for gangs and prostitution is around Grade 6,” he says.
Some of the funds raised last year helped his team develop a stronger program of what can be best described as life coaching/ mentorship with a big emphasis on fun. Thanks to in-kind donations that are helping to renovate the community centre that will house the organization’s second location, Gray says the bulk of the funds raised will go to operational costs, for the centre expected to open in the summer of 2018.
“We are now looking at opening a new location every three to five years, so we can serve every community in the city that needs us,” he says.
Thanks to the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund, he adds, what was once a dream is now becoming a reality.
“It provided us with the funds to expand,” he says, “and it gave us the kind of exposure that brings benefits for years to come. This will change a lot of kids’ lives for the better.”