Why the Coldest Night of the Year?

     I have been asked many times this year How and Why we are involved in the Coldest Night of the Year, Canada's (unofficial) National Walk for Homelessness? The short answer is: Because they asked us to be. The Senior Development Associate, Mika Takamaki found Hope Street CMC on google when searching for organizations involved with the disadvantaged in Medicine Hat and reached out to me in an email in the summer of 2014. After a bit of research on the event to make sure it was legitimate, We said Yes to hosting our first event in February of 2015 and it has been part of us ever since.

    

     I guess the next question that needs to be answered is why do we need such an event in a city that has reportedly ended homelessness? I do get asked this question more than I first realized. The short answer is: We weekly feed an average of 85 guests who might not be homeless in the traditional sense, but are disadvantaged in some way or form. We also feed many seniors, teenagers, working poor and single parent families. That is the reality of living in Medicine Hat. We don't have a large homeless population like many of the larger centres who are involved in the walk; Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto; just to name a few of the 114 partner organization across Canada involved in the 2017 Coldest Night Walk. We do however have a 10% poverty rate in Alberta and a 31% single parent poverty rate in Medicine Hat (2013 Vital Signs). Medicine Hat has done an awesome job of helping to end homelessness, but we still have to deal with disadvantaged people and that number is growing in the current economic downturn.

Who or What is Hope Street CMC

     Medicine Hat Hope Street Compassionate Ministry Centre or Hope Street CMC has been around Medicine Hat in one form or another since 2004. I won't go into all the details of our history here. You can visit http://www.hopestreetcmc.ca/about.html to get the full history of Hope Street. Just to touch on our beginnings, for the first 9 years, Hope Street Church existed as a Good Samaritan Church Ministry of Glenview Nazarene Church. In 2013 we obtained our status as a Registered Canadian Charity and have been operating as our own poverty relief organization ever since:

Our updated Vision statement is: Realized Potential through Breaking Cycles of Poverty

Our updated Mission statement is: Hope Street addresses poverty by supplying resources towards basic human needs of the homeless, working poor and disadvantaged population of Medicine Hat.

     At our current level of service, we offer a family safe environment where our guests can receive a hot and nutritious meal at no cost. We also offer clothing on selected Sundays and there is always extra food items available to take home and leftover food from the meal that get packed up for take home also. We don't have much storage so aside from clothing and a few selected items, we try and give everything away each week. We partner with many other organizations including Redcliff Bakery, St Barnabas Anglican Church, The Dream Centre, Starbucks, The Champion's Centre and the Medicine Hat Food Bank to ensure that we have enough supplies to feed up to 100 people each Sunday. Our Volunteers at one point were mainly members of Glenview Nazarene Church but now I can say we have volunteers from all over Medicine Hat and area. We have even seen volunteers from as far away as Brooks serve on occasion.

What does the Coldest Night of the Year Do For Us?

     I think Hope Street CMC has benefitted from involvement in this event in at least 3 ways:

1. Community Awareness: Because we operated as a ministry of Glenview for so long, our identity was always connected to Glenview. That was awesome because our volunteers, funding and leadership was all a part of the local church. But once we made the switch from Hope Street Church to Hope Street CMC, it took a while for Medicine Hat to become aware of us as a separate organization. 3 years of doing this event has made us known in Medicine Hat!
2. Community Involvement - This fact, along with item number 1 above, are valuable beyond measure for Hope Street CMC. Almost more important than Number 3 below. The fact that I can now report that the majority of our volunteers that are with us now are not from Glenview. We still get lots of people and support from our church family but as the organization grows, so does our volunteer base. And we HAVE grown and so HAS our volunteer base. We went from about 15 dedicated Glenviewers to about 55-60 dedicated volunteers from around our community. This is a HUGE plus of doing an event of the magnitude of Coldest Night of the Year.
3. Fundraising: As anyone knows, it takes money to keep an organization afloat. Once we became a poverty relief organization, we stopped being funded directly from the local church. It was now our job to find supporters to become donors and fund this vital Medicine Hat Ministry. I am happy to announce that we have been able to maintain our past level of service and even enhance and grow in what we provide. The Coldest Night of the Year has gone a long way to help us do that. We were able to raise over $17,000.00 in year 1, around $16,000.00 in year 2 and our looking at a $25,000.00 goal for this, our 3rd year. That would help cover almost half of our 2017 budget so this event is a major fundraiser for us. Past event have also allowed us to continue relationships with past donors and build our mailing list.

      In Conclusion, We are very proud to say we are a Coldest Night of the Year Host and Partner. The 2017 goal for the Canada-wide event is to raise $4,000,000.00 over the 114 locations. The $25,000.00 goal seems small compared to this Canada-wide goal but I feel like it is achievable. We are way above last years numbers today and traditionally see all of our numbers double over the last 10 days; Walkers, Donors, Donations...  We have a ways to go but Medicine Hat is an awesome city and very generous so I have faith we can make it. Please visit the Coldest Night of the Year Medicine Hat location page if you want to check out this event. www.cnoy.org/medicinehat or visit our website to find links to useful information on becoming involved: www.hopestreetcmc.ca. We still have room for Teams, Walkers, Volunteers and Donors and it's not too late to get involved!. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call us using the information below. and remember:

it's cold out there...

Murray Alan Kumm, Event Director

makumm@hopestreetcmc.ca

403.458.HOPE(4673)