On Monday May
8,
Soul Shine Magazine and
Axe Music teamed up to show
their support for
The Mustard Seed Street Ministry,
a long standing institution in the Calgary community.
Established over two decades ago,
The Seed works with the city’s
homeless to help them “survive and thrive” and improve all
aspects of their lives.
The “survive” approach includes
The Seed’s soup kitchen and
free store stocked with donated items such as clothing and
personal hygiene products. The next level of
The Seed’s work, “thrive,”
includes a series of progressive programs and training. With an
entire building dedicated to learning called the Creative
Centre,
the Seed helps people gain
their GED, trains them for industrial jobs, and also helps them
complete university courses for credit.
Executive Director and Founder Pat Nixon says
The Seed is always expanding
their programs, which along with the education aspect, includes
worship services, adventure trips, and weekly jam sessions.
They’ve also recently acquired a new complex in the countryside
called Mountain Air Lodge, which allows patrons to escape to a
healthier environment.
“I always thought that the church and community can work
together to help the inner city,” Nixon said, who ironically was
once a street kid himself. He opened
The Mustard Seed in 1984, and
he still says of the non-profit organization, “There’s no where
else I want to be.”
The stairwell that Nixon suggested for the
Soul Shine photo-op is a
perfect example of what he and other volunteers (whose numbers
reached nearly 10,000 last year) are trying to accomplish.
Brightly painted walls adorn the stairwell, which Nixon calls
the “Reality Wall.”
A group of street kids who were doing graffiti on the outside
walls were invited by Nixon to paint “whatever they wanted” on
the wall, the result being the brightly coloured collage of
faces. Nixon explained that unfortunately, one of the boys who
contributed to the art ended up killing himself not far from
The Seed.
He says the incident and stairwell serve as a reminder. “We
won’t win them all and we have to understand that,” Nixon said.
“You have to know that to do this type of work.”
With all they do for the community, it’s no wonder
Soul Shine and
Axe Music wanted to contribute
to
The Seed. Brian Cymbaluk,
Director of Operations for
Axe Music, agreed instantly to
help
The Seed’s music ministry by
donating a quality guitar from their stores. Tomislav Crnkovic,
an Assistant Manager at
Axe Music, was on site to
donate the
Tanglewood Guitar on Axe’s
behalf and said, “Most music stores spend money on advertising;
we do this sort of donating. It’s way better and the people get
something out of it. This is what we do for the community.”
The guitar will definitely come in handy at the centre, as
groups get together and jam every Tuesday night, and during the
worship service on Sundays.
Soul Shine also donated
personal hygiene products as needed on
The Seed’s online “Wish List”,
to be distributed to patrons through the Seed Store.
For more information on
The Mustard Seed and their work
in Calgary, go to
www.theseed.ca.
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