The hundreds of people who took to the streets Saturday evening in Orillia were described as “selfless.”
It wasn’t simply because of the charitable act they were engaged in, but also because many of them had never met the people they were helping, and likely never will — people like Brenda Marr.
Marr was at Orillia’s Coldest Night of the Year event to share her story of homelessness.
She first experienced homelessness when she was seven. She and her siblings were removed from an abusive home. Their mother stayed.
They were taken to the Red Door shelter in Toronto.
“When we went there, we had nothing. No clothes — nothing,” Marr told OrilliaMatters.
Their problems followed them to school.
“The other kids knew we were living in a shelter. We were bullied a lot at school,” she said. “It was really scary for me, not knowing what to do.”
Marr, now 38, stayed at more than a dozen shelters before she found stable housing. That was only seven years ago, when the single mother moved from Barrie to Orillia after securing low-income housing.
When she got to town, she started going to church.
“People were so helpful there. They even paid for me to go to counselling,” Marr said.
She received treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, helping her turn her life around.
She will be forever grateful to organizations like churches and shelters. When she was staying in shelters, “that was the only love I experienced in my day,” she said of the employees and volunteers who seemed to genuinely care for her. “I felt like a nobody when I left those buildings.”
When she moved to Orillia, she was overwhelmed by the community’s willingness to give, to help complete strangers.
“People can learn from Orillia,” she said. “Everyone works together. This place is full of life.”
That was evident Saturday at Lions Oval Public School, which served as headquarters for Coldest Night of the Year.
Linda Goodall, event co-organizer and executive director of the Lighthouse Soup Kitchen and Shelter, told those crammed into the gymnasium Orillia was, as of that moment, second in Canada for the number of Coldest Night of the Year participants, with almost 500. The local effort had also raised more than $85,000 — an amount that is sure to increase when all of the money brought in on the day of the event is counted.
“We are definitely going to break that $100,000 goal for Orillia,” she said.
It won’t be the first time. Last year, the Orillia event raised $103,000, putting it in fourth place overall in Canada and first place per capita.
Results like those are why Marr is happy to be in a place like Orillia, and part of the reason she chooses to volunteer at the Lighthouse.
Her life experiences — the good and the bad — have helped shape who she is today and who she wants to become: a social service worker. She will be attending Georgian College in the fall.
“I want to give back,” Marr said.
Those who took part in Coldest Night of the Year departed from Lions Oval on a two-, five- or 10-kilometre route. The event supports the Building Hope campaign to build a new shelter on Queen Street.
Learn more about Coldest Night of the Year at cnoy.org/orillia. Donations will be accepted until March 31.
More information about Building Hope can be found at orillialighthouse.ca/building-hope.
