Door of Hope turns down $2,000 due to philosophical differences

Meadow Lake’s Door of Hope may be thousands of dollars in debt, but philosophy was more important than money when staff recently turned down a substantial donation.

Fifty-50 proceeds from Saturday’s benefit concert were meant to go to the Door of Hope, however, no one showed up to claim the donation. Unita Esau, executive director at the Door of Hope said it’s because of a difference in views.

“This organization is trying to help people overcome things like addictions and those types of things,” Esau said. “In order for us to be able to do something like that, we would be telling people on one hand it’s not OK for you to spend your money gambling and yet we are seen as doing it.”

On Sept. 24, Julian Austin, Sweet Tequila, and the Dirt Road Maniacs played a benefit concert with part of the proceeds going to the Broncos senior hockey team. The team received a roughly $1,100 cheque.

Esau added it was an extremely generous offer on the organizer’s part.  

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“We really appreciated the offer but were unable to take part in the event,” she said.

While the Door of Hope didn’t receive what was expected to be up to $2,000, the charity did get a small cash donation and roughly six grocery bags of food from the show.

In late March, Dr. Mervin Johnson, a founder of the Door of Hope requested a donation from city council. He said the charity was in danger of closing due to its debt.

Over the months, donations came in with the debt range decreasing to roughly $25,000. While in debt, the charity has no danger of closing. Staff is able to cover costs, there’s regular donors for the food bank, and the city’s two grocery stores, Co-op and Extra Foods regularly donate soon-to-expire food for the soup kitchen.

Meanwhile, staff at the Door of Hope is busy planning for its 25th anniversary. Once a year, staff hold a large dinner fundraiser at the Civic Centre with silent auctions and guest speakers.

Being the 25th anniversary, Esau hopes people who helped start the charity come to talk about what it was like back then, but also what the dream and vision was of what they did.

The fundraiser is scheduled for Nov. 4.

Colton Swiderski is meadowlakeNOW’s municipal affairs, crime and court, health and education reporter. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.