Foodapalooza Fundraiser For Inn From The Cold!

  Let's have some fun and use social media to raise some money for Inn From The Cold! 

  Back in 2012, my pal Joey Oberhoffner came up with a pretty cool idea to help with a fundraiser that I was running to help some families that were guests of the Inn From The Cold at Christmas.  Through this event, we were able to raise close to $10,000 in one night, which was amazing!  Since this was such a fun night for everyone involved, we decided that we should run this fundraiser again this holiday season!

  At the last event, we had five brave eaters that reached out to their friends and social media contacts in an attempt to sponsor them for each food item they were able to eat.  While the individual donations were generous, they all added up collectively pretty fast due to the sheer volume of individual donors committed to cheering their favorite gluttonous pals on!  ( For example, Marc Doll was being sponsored for $100/taco once his sponsors were totaled up.) The amount of people that were following along and donating at home just confirmed how amazing social media can be.  

  ** All funds raised will go towards the Inn From The Cold's "Sponsor A Family" initiative this holiday season. 

  How Can You Help? 

 This year, the participants will be chowing down on Perogies and Wings in an attempt to raise money for the Inn From The Cold.  They will need your support (morally and financially) to help make this a success. An easy way to help is to offer your sponsorship of a small amount ( eg. $0.50 per wing or $1.00/perogie etc.) to one of the amazing people that have stepped up to the "plate".  

  This years event will be held at Murdoch's Bar and Grill ( 1935 37 Street SW, Calgary) on Wednesday, November 26 2014 from 7 to 10pm.  Everyone is welcome to attend!  

  So far, we have the following eaters signed up to participate:

•  Marc Doll  ( Team Alberta Party) @dollhouseyyc 

• Joey Oberhoffner ( Team PCAA)  @oberhoffner

• Kyle MacQuarrie  ( Team Twitter!)  @KyleMacQuarrie 

•  Derrick Jacobson  ( Wildrose Party ) @albertaaltruist

• Cory Chapdelaine  ( Team Cory! ) @88styles 

• Vincent St Pierre  ( Team Alberta Liberals) -  @VSP

• Kevin Olenick     ( Team Agree Or Disagree!) @kevole

  

  Donations and pledges to your favourite eater can be made here...

https://www.good.pn/events/foodapalooza

( Pledge an amount per Perogy now and you can follow up with the final totals on Nov 26!  Or, donate a flat amount to your favorite participant at the link above.)

Be sure to watch for updates on this site and on Twitter...  

We hope that everyone can make it down for a beer and some laughs that night!  This will be a great opportunity to meet up with some amazing twitter people in real life.  

Info and RSVP for this FREE event can be found at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/foodapalooza-fundraiser-for-inn-from-the-cold-tickets-14130890875 

Thanks!

Shane

Experiencing Homelessness At Inn From The Cold

  As I go about my daily routine, I find that I often forget just how privileged my life really is.  I have been blessed with an amazing family, friends and support network in my life.  I have been lucky enough to have a successful career that provides my family with the financial security that many people may never experience.  I sometimes forget that while we live in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, there is a depressing reality that many people face on a daily basis in Calgary... homelessness.

  To many, the image of homelessness is Calgary is stereotyped with the image of an older adult male living on the streets, often challenged by addiction or mental health issues.  While there are some great facilities in Calgary for single adults, most people never envision that there are actually hundreds of families that are homeless!  What happens when a family finds itself with nowhere to live?  Where do they turn?

  For the past 17 years, the Inn From The Cold has provided shelter and support to families that find themselves with nowhere else to go.  I have been a supporter of this wonderful organization for many years and was able to experience the amazing work that they do first hand today as part of their "Experience Homelessness" event and it has really opened my eyes to the challenges many Calgarians face.

  The event started out with me receiving a fictional "Final Eviction Notice" from my landlord, confirming that since I have not paid my rent,  the locks will be changed on my home and I will not be able to return.  The landlord has recommended that I attend a meeting with the Inn From The Cold today to determine if they can help keep my family off the street.

 ( The experience will now take place with my visiting the facility and experiencing this in a first person  perspective of what typically occurs on a daily basis.)


Intake/Assessment

  I arrived at my appointment with the few belongings that my family and I still  have ( nicely packed into a garbage bag) and awaited my appointment with my intake worker.  They explained this process takes one to two hours and this will help in assessing my family's needs and will help determine what the next steps will be.  This includes assessment of my education, employment, finances, rental history, cultural needs and family support situation.   Since there is a 3000+ person wait list for homes in the Calgary Housing Corporation, I am told that I will likely never obtain a space  in this subsidized housing program in the short term.  

 Once my assessment is complete, the workers really try to put together a "holistic" plan together for me and my family that we can implement.  We will be in touch with various programs throughout the city over the next few days.  But tonight, I will need their help with shelter.


Kidzone: 

  Since my children are getting restless, we move over to the "Kidzone" area at the Inn.  This is an amazing facility that focuses on education, literacy, parental bonding and helping to make the children feel at ease and secure in a fun environment.  There is a huge early childhood education component, which is quite amazing.  There are also some interesting drama club events for the older children, along with some pretty cool arts and crafts areas.

(This was one of the hardest parts of the experience for me, as I almost broke down numerous times when trying to imagine my 4 year old innocently playing in here and not understanding why we did not a home to go to anymore. )

Living Area:

 The picture above shows the rooms (called "cubicles") where a family will sleep when staying at the Inn.  As you can see, there are no doors on these rooms.  I couldn't help but note that the sleeping area ( for up to 6 people in one family) is smaller than one tiny bedroom in many homes. There are 27 of these "cubicles" which allow for close to 130 people to take shelter in the facility.

 Since the facility is full tonight, we will likely be taken by a chartered bus to a local church facility where we will spend the night.  The bus leaves after supper and will return us back to the facility early in the morning.  From there, the children will go to school etc.

  If  there is no available room at a church facility, we will find ourselves sleeping in the common living room on the third floor on one of these mats tonight.

 This whole experience was so unique as rather than take you through a generic "tour" of the facility, you actually experience it in a first person perspective.  I honestly had a hard time "keeping it together" during the experience as it was so intense and emotional.  I left the facility a little misty eyed and thankful that I actually get to return to my privileged life once I walk out the door.

  I sat in my car for a few minutes feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and angry upon realizing that some families have to face this reality every day.  I became focused on thinking that there must be something I can do to help in the coming months.  I have a few fundraising ideas and hope to explore these with my friends and family. Stay tuned.

  Here is a quick video that the Inn From The Cold released yesterday and it really is worth a look.  Also, be sure to check out their website for more information on how to volunteer and donate to this amazing charity.

www.innfromthecold.org

Thanks For Helping To Raise $10,000 for Inn From The Cold Families This Christmas!

  Wow!  What started out as a simple idea  to use social media to try and help some local families this Christmas turned out bigger than any of us could have imagined.  The plan was to raise a few hundred dollars and gather some much needed items to fill a Christmas hamper or two for the Inn From The Cold, but due to everyone's generosity, we exceeded that modest goal by a long shot.

  We had lots of interest in the goods donations and dozens of people on Twitter had contacted me to confirm that they were going to donate hamper and wish list items and many people had dropped off goods directly to me to forward to the Inn From The Cold.  I was amazed at the response and so happy that we could help the Inn in this small way.  Then, thanks to an idea hatched by my pal Joey Oberhoffner, things took off in another amazing direction.

  At the last minute, Joey organized a challenge to some of our contacts on twitter, to raise money from their respective political party members via a food pledge night!  This idea turned out to be a massive success, as we saw people from across the Alberta political spectrum get behind their members and donate money for each wing and taco that they ate!  Some even donated to all of the participants, which was amazing.  Here is how the results shook out...

Vincent St Pierre (Alberta Liberals) - 24 tacos (NOT a typo...!) 

Joey Oberhoffner (Progressive Conservatives) - 15 tacos ( Hold the sour cream....) 

Derrick Jacobson (Wildrose) - 41 chicken wings  ( Yes, there is some symbolism in the "41 Wings..." )   FYI,,,Derrick and the Wildrose raised the most money! 

Marc Doll (Alberta Party) - 13 tacos (at $100/taco!) 

Stephen D. Anderson (NDP) - 10 tacos 

These gents raised over $4700 for their efforts!!  It was hilarious to actually watch them chow down and push themselves to the limit for charity.

The best part?  We had an anonymous donor who agreed to MATCH any money raised!  This brought the total raised to well over $10,000!!!!! ( This donor's generosity had inspired all of us in this initiative)

 I had the chance to deliver the hamper items with our anonymous donor yesterday to the Inn and they were very thankful.  When they received the cheque from our matching donor, they were blown away.  This money will go a long way to helping families this holiday season.     

  Over the past few years, I have had the privilege to meet some amazing people on twitter and they always come out to support good causes.  I am truly blessed to know these good people.  Thanks again to everyone who helped, either through donations, re-tweets and support of the #ablegcares gluttony on Wednesday!





Merry Christmas everyone!  

Hey Calgary! Who Wants To Help A Family In Need This Christmas?

** Update 12/10/12**  An anonymous donor has advised that they are going to match/equal all donations received, up to $5,000!!!  This is amazing news! 

  With the holiday season in full swing, many of us are caught up in the hustle and bustle of December.  As our attention turns to finding the perfect gifts for our loved ones, many people tend to get lost in the madness of the shopping season.  As Calgarians, we are fortunate to live in one of the wealthiest cities in the world and many of have been blessed with great families, careers and financial stability.  That said, as well off as Calgary appears, there are many people struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis.

  Inn From The Cold is a local charity that provides emergency shelter, support and programs to homeless children, their families and others in need, with the goal of building healthy, stable families and ending homelessness.  I have had the opportunity to tour their facility and I found it personally heartbreaking to imagine the hardships that a homeless family faces.  The work that Inn From The Cold does on a daily basis helps families in need and I thought it would a good idea to try and give back to our community and help a family have a brighter Christmas this year.

  During this holiday season, Inn From The Cold can use our help in providing items for a Christmas hamper and holiday wish list items for their clients.  I am reaching out to friends, coworkers and associates on social media to help put together some donated items for local families.  By working together, we will be able to make a family's holiday a little brighter this year.

How can we help? 

• Please review the list of hamper and "wishlist" items in the links below and let me know if you would like to help by donating some of these important items.
• Please share the wishlist items on Twitter and Facebook to help spread the word. ( #yycTwitterXmas)
• Help with the collection and drop off of these items at the Inn From The Cold facility. 

Some of the key items they require can be found below.

1) Inn From The Cold Hamper Items
2) Inn From The Cold Wishlist Items

Ideally, I would like to collect all of the items and drop them off around December 16, 2012 if possible.

If you are interested in helping, leave a comment below or email me at calgaryrants@gmail.com ( Also, be sure to share any other ideas that may help a family at Inn From The Cold this Christmas.) and let me know if you can help!


Thanks!

Shane