The Lighthouse hosts walk to fund safety initiatives for its clients
A sea of white toques wound through Saskatoon’s downtown for a charity walk to raise awareness for those who are hungry and homeless in the city.
The Lighthouse’s March a Mile Walk to End Homelessness on Saturday drew about 100 participants. Fundraising co-ordinator Susan Scharf welcomed the group and explained how the $20 registration fees and additional donations will support the 215 citizens who spend their nights at the Lighthouse.
“It’s all about safety,” she said. “We want our people to feel safe under our roof, so we’re changing the front entrance, putting in a metal detector and it will be a oneway door where a security officer will make sure that backpacks and purses are scanned and if people aren’t comfortable doing that, there will be an option for them to exit.”
Scharf estimated the security upgrades to the building will cost around $60,000, one-third of which she hoped would be raised through the March a Mile event — an attainable amount considering that Irene and Leslie Dube are matching the pledges, up to a total of $15,000.
The Lighthouse has previously participated in the Coldest Night of the Year initiative, but Scharf said after looking at how much of the money raised goes toward the Ontario-based organization that owns the initiative’s intellectual property, Lighthouse staff decided to create a new event that will keep 100 per cent of the money raised within the community.
“We want to do the most for our own first,” she explained. “And we did feel confident that we could host our own event and that the community would support it.”
One of the participants who showed up to make the trek was Gloria Marsolais, who said supporting the event — and the Lighthouse itself — hit home for her because she has friends and family who have previously struggled with homelessness and addiction.
The walk also drew community leaders including the provincial Social Services Minister Paul Merriman, Saskatoon police Chief Troy Cooper and Mayor Charlie Clark.
Clark praised the role the Lighthouse plays within the city, especially when pressures like the economic downturn and recent city growth have left some Saskatoon residents falling through the cracks.
He said supporting the organization so it can upgrade its services will remove some of the pressures faced by the city’s most vulnerable residents.
“One of the challenges of a place like the Lighthouse is you end up having a lot of people with different needs and issues,” Clark said, “so you need to have the right environment so that people can be safe ... Because there has been so much growth, I think it’s a matter now of putting the right pieces in place to create as safe an environment as possible.”
The March a Mile event marked Cooper’s first time inside the Lighthouse. He said he is excited to learn more about the organization and work alongside its members to tackle issues such as chronic homelessness and addiction.
“This is the centre point for these services in Saskatoon,” he said. “There are more appropriate ways to address some of these issues than policing, and I think that conversation excites me. It’s a realization that people are beginning to understand that police aren’t the only answer to social issues and that we are really heavily reliant on our partners in the community.”
We want our people to feel safe under our roof, so we’re changing the front entrance.