Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 15, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 CITY?BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204-697-7292 ? CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B1 WEDNESDAY APRIL 15, 2020 SECTION BCONNECT WITH WINNIPEG'S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE? A WINNIPEG non-profit is mak-ing space for those who aren't able to socially distance or self- isolate due to homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sscope, which typically provides em- ployment for Winnipeggers living with mental illness, has opened its Arlington Street thrift store as a round-the-clock emergency space for those without somewhere to go. "We really serve the community and a lot of our community is homeless," Sscope executive director Angela Mc- Caughan said Tuesday. "When (the novel coronavirus) gets to this population, which it will, we're go- ing to be in trouble." McCaughan said she had been toying with the idea of opening a safe space in the thrift store long before the pan- demic hit, so when COVID-19 began creeping into Manitoba, the decision to switch gears was immediate. "We cleaned out our entire store in about a day," McCaughan said. Clothing and fixtures were either given away or tucked away in the back, and mats were placed on the floorspace - spaced six feet apart - for guests to use in the evening. The building was already equipped with bathrooms, a shower, laundry ma- chines and computers for community members to use. "We've always been like a family, but now these new guests are just like a family," McCaughan said. "They're washing floors and help- ing us wash clothes, and cleaning and disinfecting things constantly. It's just amazing to see people step up, and people that nobody really counts on all of a sudden realize that they have pur- pose, and they're important, and they can help in the cause." The emergency space is opening its doors to 75 guests during the day and 20 each night, while also providing meals from Winnipeg Harvest every Wed- nesday. McCaughan is hoping for dona- tions from local restaurants to keep the food supply stocked, as the majority of the organization's funds are being used to support full-time staff working at the new space. "Thank you for caring about us. You brought us food, love and companion- ship. We are together. We are united," guest Gordon Batenchuk wrote in a let- ter to the Sscope team. McCaughan said many of the guests are people recently discharged from the Health Sciences Centre, and the organization is working to prioritize women, especially young women, when overnight spots start to fill up. "We're over capacity every night," she said, adding those who cannot be accommodated are directed to nearby shelters. Sscope was supported in its efforts by a $20,000 emergency grant from the Winnipeg Foundation in late March, McCaughan said. Even so, McCaughan said, the funds are only enough to keep the safe space open for four or five weeks. In the meantime, Sscope is working to access funding through a number of differ- ent avenues, including through gov- ernment-supported End Homelessness Winnipeg. julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca JULIA-SIMONE RUTGERS Arlington Street non-profit offers safety, sense of purpose to those in need Thrift shop finds reuse as safe refuge JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Angela McCaughan of Sscope talks to Mike (left) as she and David help him adjust his wheel- chair at the Arlington Street facility - which has converted from thrift store to shelter. FOR the Winnipeg Folk Festival's or- ganizers and its legion of loyal fans, April 14 will be the day the music died. That day, Tuesday, was when the folk fest's board of directors decided to can- cel the 2020 edition of the event, which was to be held July 9-12 at Birds Hill Provincial Park. The COVID-19 pandemic is to blame. Executive director Lynne Skromeda said Tuesday that staff had considered a number of alternative ways to hold the festival in 2020, but uncertainty caused by the coronavirus and the restrictions against public gatherings to prevent its spread left them no option but to wait until 2021. "We tried so many different scen- arios - a small event later in the year with just Manitoba artists, a live stream - and we just couldn't make it work," Skromeda said in a telephone interview. Staff also considered segmenting the festival site at Birds Hill. They con- sidered a plan that involved lines being drawn on the ground to keep specta- tors a safe distance apart, but the idea proved to be not feasible, Skromeda said. "Part of the live music experience is being close together, indoors or out- doors," she said. "We didn't even know if anybody would want to be out there (this summer)." The folk festival faces a big dent in its balance sheet because of the cancel- lation as well as the loss of several pre- festival fundraising concerts that have already been cancelled or postponed. It will offer refunds for those who have already purchased festival passes, but will ask those people to donate the funds back to the folk festival in return for a charitable donation tax receipt. Passes dated for 2020 will not be ac- cepted for the 2021 festival. "We think we will be able to weather the storm," Skromeda said. If the fortunes of the 2020 folk fest could be charted on a graph, it would run in a line completely opposite to the familiar graph of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Manitoba and around the world. On March 1, antici- pation was high among fans and or- ganizers when the folk fest announced its lineup, which was highlighted by Australian singer Vance Joy, Icelandic rockers Kaleo and legendary singer- songwriter John Prine. The threat of COVID-19 grew expo- nentially in March to the point that the province declared a state of emergency on March 20, and on March 27 the gov- ernment announced it would ban public gatherings of more than 10 people. On March 29, Prine's family an- nounced the Grammy Lifetime Achieve- ment Award recipient was in critical condition in a Nashville hospital, suffering from complications caused by COVID-19. He died on April 6 at age 73. "I just can't believe how much the world has changed in six weeks," Skromeda said. alan.small@freepress.mb.ca Twitter:@AlanDSmall AS faith communities continue to grap- ple with how to serve their members in the age of COVID-19, at least two local Roman Catholic churches are ripping a page from the fast-food restaurant play- book. St. Theresa's Parish in West St. Paul and Holy Ghost Parish on Selkirk Av- enue have joined a growing number of churches in Canada and the U.S. offer- ing drive-thru confessional services. "We aren't able to go to mass, but to be able to drive up and give a confes- sion or even to just have a chat with our priest, it's just a nice way to stay con- nected to your spiritual life," said St. Theresa's Parish council leader Laura Kwiatkowski. The church, located at 3597 Main St., began offering the service about a month ago, and has since provided spiritual support for about 50 people, Kwiatkowski said. "Our church was in a unique pos- ition," she said. "We had a nice big park- ing lot, with the space to set up this sort of thing (and) brought in a temporary trailer that is parked right beside the church, where our priest (Father David Kowalski) sits inside. "People just drive in and pull up near the window where the priest is sitting and then they have their chat," she said. Cars are limited to one person, with drivers directed to leave ample spacing between vehicles to ensure privacy, Kwiatkowski said. "It's very confidential, no one can hear what is being discussed," she said. "Everything is as it would be inside." The service is available to non-church members and "walk-ups," no appoint- ment necessary. "I know the day that I went, the per- son ahead of me drove in from Gimli, because this was the closest place they could come to have this done, so it's been very well-received," Kwiatkowski said. And while confession might be what draws people in, the church recognizes folks sometimes just need someone to talk to, Kwiatkowski said. "Everyone knows that families being together all the time can be challenging at best, and perhaps there are more rea- sons for people to chat," she said. "This is a nice little break from what is hap- pening at the house. You can stay con- nected to what is happening with your spiritual life and. just have some time with the parish priest." The confessional is open one hour a day, Wednesday to Friday, and two hours on Saturday. A detailed schedule can be found on the church's website at sttheresas.ca "He's there for an hour, but it's not like he's pulling the shingle down if there are still people in line," Kwiat- kowski said. "It's not like a drive-thru at McDonald's. You can chat as much as you need." It was in the run-up to Easter that Father Paul Patrick and his colleagues at Holy Ghost Parish started thinking about alternative ways they could pro- vide confessional services. "People were asking us to come to confession and we were trying to think about ways to do it safely, keeping in mind social distancing and all that," Patrick said, noting Easter is typically the busiest period at the church for hearing confessions. After considering options, including confessions by telephone, Holy Ghost decided to follow St. Theresa's lead and offer a drive-thru service. "We went really simple, a real min- imalist approach," Patrick said. "We didn't have intense big crowds of people, so we literally just set up one of our own cars, with pylons on either side" and directed parishioners to drive alongside the church car, roll down their window, and start talking. "It's like ordering a coffee from Tim Hortons, except you are doing confes- sions," he said. The church offered the service two hours a day and over the course of two weeks heard between 100 and 150 con- fessions, Patrick estimated. "It was pretty steady," he said. "We didn't have huge lineups of cars, but there were a couple days where we had two or three cars waiting in line like any drive-thru." The church didn't promote the ser- vice offering on social media or its web- site, concerned parishioners might not take to the mode of delivery, but the re- sponse has been overwhelmingly posi- tive, Patrick said. "You don't want to go too far and make a joke out of it, but at the same time, you want to respond to a need," he said. "People were really happy to have the opportunity and to do it in a safe manner." The drive-thru confessional is sus- pended for now, but may resume in the near future on a reduced schedule, Pat- rick said. "Right now we are having a little break. but we will look at it for the coming weeks," he said. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca Folk fest falls to pandemic ALAN SMALL DEAN PRITCHARD Drive-thru confessional services giving highway to heaven touch of baptism by tire RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Father Paul Patrick at Holy Ghost Parish says confessionals in their parking lot for two weeks prior to Easter drew steady traffic. The service has currently been paused but may resume soon. B_01_Apr-15-20_FP_01.indd B1 2020-04-14 9:40 PM ;