It was billed as a Harmony for Hope. A joint concert featuring the Eastman Male Choir led by Ed Hildebrand, and the Winkler Community Male Choir led by Ray Giesbrecht combined to support Eden Health Care Services. The Choir sang, and the people came. It was a packed house at the Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church, and 800 filled the pews at Steinbach Mennonite Church. The concerts also concluded with a number of songs featuring the combined choirs, and it was after the concert, Bass section singers Al Ens and Peter Dyck shared with Al Friesen, their enjoyment of the evening.
Peter was featured in a solo in the gospel song, Precious Lord Take My Hand.
It’s always a delight to be together with a group of men and
women who have a desire to take a step or two just beyond the borders of
‘comfortable’.IronMan is just such a
case.This event is open to everyone who
wants to golf for a purpose and who wants to golf without the focus being on
the golf score alone.The IronMan is for
everyone who’d like to give a good part of a day to playing golf and in the process
raise the awareness of issues surrounding mental health.
Tuesday June 23rd is the day you’re invited to
take part in an adventure.This year is
the 15th year that Eden Foundation has hosted a group of golfers on
the Winkler Centennial Golf Course.There
is no registration fee to be part of this event but we do ask golfers and
caddies to raise pledges in support of the work of Eden Health Care Services.Here’s the link that will take you to the Registration
Page.
Eden Foundation has created a Manual you can download here.It will give you all the details
of what to expect during the course of the day, from the time you arrive for
breakfast to supper in the late afternoon.
Try to keep up boys!
The question one might well ask is, “Why would anyone want
to golf 100 holes of golf in one day?That’s an awful lot of golfing for one day.”The reason why anyone might want to do
anything is to challenge oneself and in doing so, recall how someone struggling
with issues surrounding mental health is challenged daily.For someone who is dealing with issues of mental
health, not only does that person struggle with the emotional roller-coaster
but so very frequently the individual is struggling with the loss of
employment.It is also far too common
that in many cases homelessness is part of the package.
Eden Foundation is focusing on all of the components that
make up good mental health and there are occasions where a particular area is
the focused target for the event.This
year the Foundation is looking to support the work of our Housing and Supports Board
and their expansion of housing.Currently
Housing and Supports operates apartment buildings in Winkler, Steinbach and
Winnipeg which offer 131 places for people to call home.There continues to be a real need for more
places to be built and the Eden organization is not alone in this realization.Eden gets involved with building homes where
there is a desire for the communities being served, to have those homes built.
No, really! This is a very serious game.
Currently, Eden together with a group of people from the
city of Steinbach have come together and have identified a prime piece of
property in Steinbach to build a new apartment block and have made an official
application to the provincial government, inviting them into the partnership as
well.This is a pattern that Eden and
other interested groups have worked successfully in previous projects; the last
one being the Concordia Village IV project in Winnipeg.We look forward to the formalization of the
relationship and as such can expect that the Eden will be asked to be a
financial contributor to the project.
You are invited to be part of the experience. You can be part of that experience by sponsoring one of the golfers, click here to add your support to their effort.
Winkler Community Male Choir and Eastman Male Choir are again teaming up to sing. These two choirs will be collaborating to present a message of hope, healing and community.
Eastman Male Choir
Ed Hildebrand is the director for the Eastman Male Choir and in addition is an accomplished pianist and music arranger. Ray Giesbrecht directs the Winkler Community Male Choir and is a performing soloist. They'll be collaborating on a little something as part of the performances.
Winkler Community Male Choir
These two choirs are joining to present not one, but two evenings of music. The first concert is on Saturday April 25th at 7 pm at Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church. The second concert will be on Sunday April 26th at 7 pm at Steinbach Mennonite Church. The work of Eden Foundation is to engage the community in the work of Eden Health Care Services. That means in part, that we are asking for financial engagement in order that a particular goal or dream that the community has identified can become a reality. The needs that we are being reminded of over and over again, is for good affordable housing and the sense of community that results from having a decent place to live. That's what the goal is for these concerts.
The reason that Eden is in the business of housing, is that
to maintain a good mental health balance there is a need for a number of other
realities of life to be present, not the least of which is housing.To have a safe, warm and decent place to go
home to everyday is a huge part of having peace of mind and as a result
continued good mental health.
There are currently two housing projects that are taking
shape.One project is a collaboration
between Eden, a group of partners in Steinbach and then another project that
is taking shape which is a collaboration between Eden and a group of partners
in Morden. In both projects, we have the privilege of having the provincial
government as one of those collaborating partners.
The government of Manitoba in turn recognizes the value of
our contribution to these housing projects in that we as the people who live in
these communities are showing in very real and practical terms that we
consider these projects to be important and that we are engaged and care.That
does not go unheeded by the government that we have collectively elected.
So when we come together in events like these two Harmony
for Hope concerts, we are speaking not only into the lives of those whom we
will eventually help find a new place that can be called ‘home’, we are also
speaking clearly and loudly to our government. We are telling them that we
the citizens living here consider this work important and here is the
proof.Please come work with us.
You are invited you to
come to the Harmony for Hope concerts.You will hear good male choir singing. You will hear a report on the work
of Eden Health Care Services and the further developments of these partnerships. You will have opportunity to make a difference in
the lives of people dealing with issues surrounding mental health.
Written by Daryl Braun/Michelle Sawatzky/Allen Penner for Steinbach Online on Friday, 19 September 2014
Cardboard box where Dorinda Penner spent the night
About 60 people slept outdoors Thursday night in Steinbach's K.R. Barkman Park as part of the CEO Sleepout. The annual event is organized by Today House, the local homeless shelter.
Lindsay Smith of Steinbach works for Siloam Mission in Winnipeg and spoke to the group. She says many of the homeless in Steinbach are not visible.
“This is what we call the hidden homeless or the under-housed, so they don't have safe, affordable, appropriate housing. They may be couch surfing, they may be staying with family or maybe they are staying in a place that's too small for the amount of people in their family or the amount of money that they're pouring into rent doesn't allow them to pay for anything else. Some folks are spending 80 to 90 per cent of their income on rent. That's not affordable. I believe that's what you are starting to have in Steinbach.”
People who took part in the sleepout, like Dorinda Penner from Sunshine Nursery and Greenhouse, say it was a big eye opener.
“We think we understand what homeless people go through but we don't. It's hard. I brought myself a box, thinking that would give me more shelter and stuck it in some shrubs. But you turn over and then there's a noise and then you roll and then you think, oh this is really hard on my back, and then you roll again and it's hard the next morning to get up and function normally.”
Penner says the sleepout reinforced the need for the community to support services like Today House.
Shannon Kehler is the Shelter Coordinator at Today House. She says they see a lot of people throughout the year.
“It's not every night which is a good thing. We don't want to be busy every night, hopefully. It comes and goes, it goes in spurts. The weather is definitely a factor, the winter is a lot busier than the summer.”
Today House spokesperson, Doctor Curtis Krahn, says there is an ongoing need for more volunteers and financial donations to sustain the operation of the shelter.
Group discussion on the poverty challenge led by Kyle Penner(Photo by Moni Loewen)
Participants gather at KR Barkman Park for instructions(Photo by Moni Loewen)
Hanover School Division principals set-up at KR Barkman Park (l-r) Eldon Dueck, Rod Kehler (in black), Shelley Amos(Photo by Moni Loewen)
