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Vol. 8 Edition 4
Outreach with care
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2020
R.O.C.K. Missions heads out to help others By Mary Beth Corcoran mary@chathamvoice.com
Ensuring that the most vulnerable people in our community feel cared for is the driving force behind R.O.C.K. (Reach Out Chatham-Kent) Missions, and the message on every lunch bag the volunteers give out to the homeless is heartfelt. “You Matter” is the message Al and Candy McGuigan, along with co-founder Jeff Parker, try to get across to each new friend they meet in the community with no food, shelter and in some cases, means of support. Since last May, the people behind R.O.C.K. Missions have been reaching out to the homeless men, women and children where they are – along the river bank, under bridges, by the old glue factory, on the streets, in motels – to feed them, provide warm clothing and try to connect them with services they may need. Al McGuigan, who acts as executive director for the group, said he saw a need for the homeless who have social anxiety or other trust issues that keep them from area soup kitchens or community dinners. “I started to volunteer at Hope Haven, back in May of last year. Working there, I saw some gaps
in the system because there were people being missed – families, women, and also just getting people connected to resources that are available in the community,” McGuigan said of his group’s beginning. “They were providing a place to sleep and a place to eat, but that was the extent of it, so my wife, Candy, decided she was going to reach out to some people in Chatham that weren’t being captured in that group, so she started walking King Street with Jeff Parker and giving out lunches.” McGuigan said they started out with 14 lunches and are now up to 80 lunches they give out twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The big goal, he noted, was to get people off the streets and into a home. “We realized we had to start out smaller and work through and build an organization. So, we started out with outreach first, and provide a handmade lunch; soup and sandwich in the winter and just a sandwich or hotdog in the summer. We also provide clothing – coats, boots, hats, shirts, hoodies – and we also provide hygiene products and basic needs, along with some basic medical like bandages, aspirin and Polysporin,” he noted. Continued on page 2
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Airborne for a good cause
Sarah Schofield/The Chatham Voice
Kash Yeck, left, Maggie Kobrossy, right, and Seth Gauthier from St. Clair College’s Thames Students Inc. group jump into the cold waters for a good cause at the third annual Polar Plunge on Saturday at St. Clair College’s Thames Campus. More than 150 plungers participated this year, and over $45,000 was raised at the event, earmarked for Special Olympics Ontario.
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