Participants in the Coldest Night of the Year walk in Centretown bundled up and faced the rain on Feb. 20 to raise money for those in need.
The event, an annual fundraiser put on by Blue Sea Philanthropy in partnership with other local charities nationwide, entered its sixth year and included 92 walks across Canada and almost 20,000 participants.
“The event, in its simplest form, is a two-, a five-, and a 10-kilometre walk,” says Mika Takamaki, development director for Ontario based Blue Sea Philanthropy, an umbrella charity that provides other charities with resources for fundraising.
“We partner with a charity in a community that serves the hungry, the homeless or the hurting and we work with that charity to organize the event.”
Centretown has been a location included in the Coldest Night of the Year since 2012. It’s hosted locally by Jericho Road Christian Ministries, a charity that provides mental health support and addiction recovery to men in the Ottawa community.
In previous years, the fundraiser was based at St. Paul’s Eastern United Church, but due to a move in the location of Jericho Road’s weekly soup kitchen and coffeehouse, the event was relocated this year to Centretown’s First Baptist Church, at the corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue.
“We are using the facilities where we house our coffeehouse, which is neat because people know we’re there so it’s a location that we’re very comfortable with and that the people that we serve know that Jericho Road is there,” says Hope Versluis, executive director of Jericho Road. “It’s just a location that’s familiar to people that we’re connected with.”
The event also included a new walking route for participants with the change in venue. Participants began their walk by heading west from the First Baptist Church on Laurier Avenue West, took a turn south on Bank Street and finished their walks by heading north on Elgin Street to return to the starting point.
This year’s event raised nearly $40,000 for Jericho Road and saw more than 100 walkers participate. All proceeds will be going towards purchasing another home for some of the men that Jericho Road serves.
Jericho Road provides homes for men with mental health issues, and offers a variety of services, including a residential treatment program so they can help a person through the many stages of addiction issues.
“We’re hoping to be buying another house,” says Versluis of the funds raised at the Coldest Night of the Year. “The money that’s coming in is to turn that hope into a home so we can have good, affordable, stable housing for the men that we’re housing.”
Marion Payne, a member of the Jericho Road community and a walker in the Coldest Night of the Year event since it first came to Centretown, says purchasing another home would make a big difference for the men that the charity serves.
Jericho Road offers both supervised and independent care homes throughout Ottawa, where men can live with the assistance of charity members. Jericho Road currently has an expensive rental property they are looking to leave, and with the money raised at the Coldest Night of the Year event, they will get closer to reaching this goal and providing more men with affordable housing.
“I think it’s wonderful because it’s not just a bed for the night, it’s long term,” says Payne. “They get a home, they get a bed, they get fellowship, friendship, they get a loving community that they don’t get anywhere else.”
Through their partnership with charities like Jericho Road, Blue Sea Philanthropy is striving to make a change in Canada’s current homelessness situation.
“In every location, homelessness has a local flavor and that’s one of the reasons why I love the walk,” says Takamaki. “In 92 locations, this one event can help a local charity that’s doing critical work to be able to better serve their community.
He adds: “Whether it be operating a shelter, or a food bank or ways to address homelessness, the event looks different in each city and helps the cause in different ways.”