“Without their support, I wouldn’t have made it:” AWAC to be beneficiary of Miracle on Third

“It’s the best thing that happened to me, saved my life, because I was out here on the streets and everything like that, and I just saw too many people dying and stuff, and I didn’t want to be there anymore. So I jumped on ship and it’s the best thing that happened,” said Gordie Carpenter, who also went through AWAC programs and now works as AWAC’s Maintenance Manager.

Miracle on Third is an annual event taking place outside of the Pattison Media building (1810 3rd Ave.), and this year it will take place on December 6 from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. AWAC says it’s honoured to be chosen as the recipient of the donations, and hopes to purchase a bus for its many clients.

“We have 27 members at our Olive Branch sober living program and we have two minivans. So a lot of the time we’re driving clients back and forth to meetings, to events, to community functions, and we’re having to do a lot of trips. It would just be a lot easier if we could all travel together in one vehicle,” said AWAC’s Community Services Manager Juanita Hyslop.

Beyond the bus, Hyslop adds any cash donations will also be a huge help in bringing more programs.

“We’re really trying to promote more programing and doing really great things for our clients, especially our clients in our sober living program. We do equine therapy with them, there are things that we like to provide for those, and we would love to grow our recovery community. We are maxed out in our residents there, and it would be great if we could eventually have a bigger sober living recovery community,” Hyslop said.

While there are many community organizations that would be wonderful to partner with for Miracle on Third, Pattison Media says its happy to work with AWAC this year, as it says AWAC stood out among many other great groups.

“We had a flood of applications from a bunch of organizations, and it wasn’t easy. We looked at the individual applications as written, but AWAC did stand heads above as an organization that came with a need, a very important need, but more importantly, an enthusiasm, just an unbridled enthusiasm to make this event successful. Even talking with some of the team this morning, the ideas are just flowing about how we can engage the community to create those donations,” said Pattison Media’s Prince George General Manager Kevin Gemmell.

Beyond cash, Hyslop says donations of items to protect against the winter temperatures would be great, saying “anything that would bring you comfort would bring comfort to our clients, too.” This includes but is not limited to:

Pajamas
Long Johns
Toques, gloves, scarves
Socks and shoes
Backpacks

While there is no specific fundraising goal, Gemmell added he would love to see this year’s Miracle on Third raise $25,000, as this would bring the event’s total contributions to $100,000 since it first began in 2018.

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by Tommy Osborne

“Without their support, I wouldn’t have made it:” AWAC to be beneficiary of Miracle on Third

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