Now playing at the Vanity: Hope
As signs go, this one appeared like a hint of hope on a stretch of desolation boulevard in downtown Windsor.
The sign is for the Downtown Mission of Windsor’s website. It could be seen in the distance on a large banner at the back of its soon-to-be former home on Victoria Avenue. The banner peeks out between two old buildings across an empty lot of what was once the vibrant Vanity Theatre on Ouellette Avenue.
The theatre was once a magnet for movie-goers. I remember seeing big budget blockbusters there and hearing about other movies I was too young to see: Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Exorcist, The Graduate. I think The Rocky Horror Picture Show played there and I wondered what the hell that was all about.
Alas, the theatre met the wrecking ball last spring following years of decline, dead dreams and fire. It’s now a vacant lot, yet another symbol of downtown blight. A cavity among the rotted teeth of so much despair. A gaping hole.
But this story isn’t about a hole. It’s about hope.
For peeking through that gap in the distance is that sign. Like a beacon in this season of giving, it seems to call out to people from across the void: Help the hopeless, feed the hungry, clothe the homeless.
The Downtown Mission has cause for hope. Earlier this year, it announced it was moving to a new location on Ouellette Avenue — a two-minute walk south of this hole, across the street from the Windsor Public Library’s downtown branch. As the Christmas season approaches, 875 Ouellette Ave. is a beehive of activity as workers and volunteers are busy getting the new building ready.
Organizers had hoped their new Wellness Centre would be open in the fall but are now eyeing December.
“We’re hoping they don’t have to spend another winter on the floor,” said one volunteer of the people currently living in the mission’s overcrowded quarters on Victoria Ave.
While the Downtown Mission is reaping the rewards of a banner fundraising year and a new building, it still needs money. Its annual Christmas campaign is underway.
Look, I get it. There are a lot of worthy causes out there that need funding. On downtown Windsor’s streets, Goodfellows are already out hawking special edition newspapers on this weekend. The United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County campaign is in full swing. Coats for Kids, Hiatus House, the Salvation Army, Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Foundation. There is such a thing as donor fatigue.
While we can’t always give to all these worthy causes, consider the need:
- About 600 people in Windsor are homeless. That includes young people, although in Windsor they will have a new shelter at the Downtown Mission’s Wellness Centre.
- Community organizations are being asked to submit funding proposals that will help vulnerable people in Windsor-Essex buy, grow, cook and eat healthy foods.
- VON Windsor-Essex is accepting donations to help feed local seniors through its Meals on Wheels program. Last year, $4,000 was used to provide 640 meals including the 250 at Christmas.
- A group of local musicians, rock and roll angels including Jeff Burrows of The Tea Party and Jody Raffoul who go by the ingenious name Sleighing Hunger, are doing their part to help the hungry with another Christmas CD and concert.
- An estimated 21,000 households in Windsor have used a food bank in 2016 — 2,000 of them for the first time.
And on, and on. The need is great and while it’s true charity shouldn’t end at Christmas we have to start somewhere.
Right now in my work life, there is so much distress and despair. At my workplace and across the entire newspaper industry, people are losing their jobs. Friends and co-workers are being forced out the door and into unknown territory and I only hope they find their way back on their feet and avoid the tortured daily decisions that so many people in our community have to make: Pay the rent/mortgage or buy food. Even if they all do make it, there are too many people in the community who still struggle and need a helping hand.
I know the truism that “there but for the grace of God go I” is all too real.
That may have been the message in that Downtown Mission sign that was calling out to me from across the void. Was it asking too much to answer the call?
Part of “Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs” series. Click here to see more.
Claudio D’Andrea has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazine and online publications for 30 years. You can read his stuff on LinkedIn andMedium.com and follow him on Twitter.
