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Around Town: Making a Splish Splash

Rain or shine, the need for community support to fund meal programs and raise awareness of Our Place never ends. Despite early showers, a steady stream of donors behind the wheel and on foot showed up Sept.

Rain or shine, the need for community support to fund meal programs and raise awareness of Our Place never ends.

Despite early showers, a steady stream of donors behind the wheel and on foot showed up Sept. 7 for Splish Splash, the centre’s charity event that turned its Pandora Avenue courtyard into a car wash.

It was a spectacle both moving and surreal, as when a colourful, cigar-toting Our Place regular named David, a.k.a. Johnny Sprinkles, dashed about like Groucho Marx, cracking jokes, dancing and singing Broadway showtunes in an eye-catching outfit. He was hard to miss with his Homer Simpson boxer shorts over faded jeans, a flashy Hawaiian-type shirt and costume jewelry.

“At the car wash … workin’ at the car wash!” the irrepressible character sang as local MLAs, MPs, mayors and other community leaders and media types enthusiastically did just that.

The event raised $1,965 — $700 more than last year, said organizer and Victoria city councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe.

“Rain doesn’t dampen our spirits or cause,” she said as colourful local businessman Gordy Dodd amusingly lured motorists from the boulevard where an energetic squad of STAGES Performing Arts Company dancers-in-red strutted their stuff.

“Homelessness doesn’t see municipal lines or boundaries,” added Thornton-Joe. “It’s all about the spirit of giving back.”

Eye-opening tours of the impressive facility that serves Greater Victoria’s working poor, impoverished seniors, people with mental health and physical challenges and the homeless were offered.

Our Place provides 45 transitional housing units, free clothing, hot showers, counselling and outreach services and serves 1,200 meals a day, explained fund development manager Rhiannon Porcellato.

“We do so much that people aren’t aware of,” she said during a tour of the library and computer room, interfaith chapel, dining area and nutrition bar, or “the nutbar,” as some family members jokingly term it.

“We say ‘family members’ because Our Place is home to many people,” she explained, noting Our Place also has a choir, art and computer classes and programs like Vets for Pets, staffed by volunteer veterinarians.

One member from Quebec, Jean-Pierre, said Our Place helped him overcome his dark past and get back on his feet.

“I’ve got my own place but I have to come here once in a while,” he said. “They don’t judge you.”

NDP MLA Carole James said such events help dispel misconceptions.

“The people who use Our Place are our brothers and sisters, our neighbours,” she said. “They’re part of our community, not something ‘separate’ or apart.”

Retired pharmacist and philanthropist Naz Rayani’s reason for being there was simple, he said: “Our Place is my place.”

“It’s great to see everyone taking their mayor’s hats off, their media hats off and just working for a really good cause,” added Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin.

STAGES founder Kim Breiland beamed with pride as her students danced to the song YMCA.

“It’s important for me to teach the kids to give back, to let them know the community is their backbone.”

 

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