Tony Côté photos
LEFT: Gord Holder (foreground), Pauline Tam and Janet Hunter slather coats of paint on a hallway at the Union Mission. RIGHT: Bob Reade, Rosemary Isaacs, Marie Côté and Lois Kirkup (on steps) tackled the tedious job of painting railings in the stairwell. Kirkup is the president of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild and secretary of TNG Canada.

04 April 2005

Guild members pitch in
to spruce up homeless shelter

Ottawa Newspaper Guild | TNG Canada Local 30205

On a cold, wet and windy day, members of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild found the perfect way to keep warm — painting.

On Saturday, 13 Guild members, their friends and family showed up at the Union Mission in Ottawa to lend their hands, expertise and lack thereof to a massive painting project. The volunteers spent six hours wielding brushes to give stairwells and hallways a fresh look. In addition to providing the labour, the Local paid for the paint used.

Everyone — Guild members, Mission staff and, most important, the people who sleep and eat in the century-old building — was impressed. The Mission prepared a nice lunch of fried chicken and pasta salad for the volunteers.

It is hoped that the ‘work day’ will turn into an annual event for the ONG, which several months ago adopted the Union Mission as its designated charity. Members of the Local, who work for The Ottawa Citizen, CJOH Television or DLR International printers, wanted to get more involved in the community and liked the idea of working with and for homeless people.

The Mission has been in existence for about 100 years and is located in Ottawa’s downtown core area. It sleeps about 300 homeless men nightly and serves about 1,000 meals a day to the homeless and less privileged.