Mission Possible kicks into high gear
Published Friday November 6th, 2009
Community support needed to help peel vegetables on Nov. 14 at Moncton Market
With a little creativity and some hard work, nothing is impossible. Members of the local business community hope to pass that message on as the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce's Mission Possible campaign kicks into high gear.
Announced last month at the Greater Moncton Excellence Awards, Mission Possible saw 10 chamber members given $100 and 30 days to make a difference in the community, with no other instruction than to be creative in finding a way to help people in the community. Upon completion, the chosen participants are then supposed to donate $100 to another business in order to keep Mission Possible going.
Jamie McGloin, president of the Greater Moncton Progress Club, is one of the selected 'agents for change' and he has big plans to help feed many hungry mouths this winter.
"Every couple of months a bunch of guys in the Progress Club get together and make soup for Mobile One Soup Kitchen," McGloin explained. "I just looked at it and said 'what can I come up with that would impact a ton of people at once and especially this time of year?' Why reinvent the wheel? This is a formula that works, we make 400 or 500 portions of soup and it takes three or four hours."
For this project, McGloin has set his sights much higher and is looking to create 5,000 portions of soup, which will be able to be stored and used throughout the winter. So how does he plan to make that much soup for only $100? That's where creativity and community support comes in.
McGloin partnered with the Moncton Wildcats and used his $100 to buy some game tickets, which the franchise was more than happy to give him at a discount. McGloin then approached restaurant owners and asked if they would help him out by providing just one item for the soup, in exchange for a night out on the town enjoying the Wildcats.
"It's a lot easier to ask five or six owners to donate something smaller as opposed to asking one or two," McGloin said, noting he "hasn't got a no yet," as Subway, Swiss Chalet, Mexicali Rosa's, St. James' Gate and Heinz Canada have thus far stepped up to help.
McGloin is now calling for public support to help this project reach the finish line. On Nov. 14 at the Moncton Market, the public is invited to come help peel and prepare the vegetables which will be used in the 5,000 servings of soup. All materials needed to help out will be provided and the event will begin at 8 a.m.
"Peel a few carrots, peel a few potatoes, bring your kids in and peel a few, explaining what they are doing. Just by peeling a bag of carrots you are going to be helping feed 5,000 meals to people that really can't afford meals when it starts to get cold out," he said. "It's just trying to educate our kids in what volunteerism is all about."
Another Mission Possible initiative about to take place is being organized by Jennifer Marr of Advanced Credit and Savings, in conjunction with Harvest House, which is a Christian Humanitarian Organization dedicated to helping the less fortunate with their basic needs.
Their Mission Possible initiative will see a group of people live in a cardboard box for 54 hours.
"What we're trying to do is show where people would be living if there wasn't the Harvest House and House of Nazareth and places that would take people," said Erin Daniels, director of communications and fundraising for Harvest House. "What we're doing is we're living out in the cold, to help heat Harvest House and to cover the cost of the 20 oil tanks that it costs us to run our facilities, which works out to be $14,000."
That fundraiser will begin in the Champlain Place parking lot on Nov. 12 at 8 a.m. Along with accepting monetary donations for the cause, there will also be a drop-off location for winter clothes people wish to donate.
"I think (Mission Possible) just shows that you don't need a lot of money to kickstart something amazing, you just have to have the right people around you," Daniels said.
Valerie Roy, the Chamber's CEO, said more details should be coming forward about other Mission Possible initiatives in the coming weeks and that the community has taken well to this initiative thus far.
"We want it to be at the grassroots level, we want it to be viral, we want it to be a real movement in the community. We're really excited about these first people and the ideas coming to the table," she said. "The excitement is palpable really. The people that are participating so far are really doing extraordinary things. Their ideas are very far reaching and the committee is really charged up."
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