THE DUNDARAVE FESTIVAL

The Ultimate
Canadian Christmas

WEST VANCOUVER ❈ BRITISH COLUMBIA
  • Shine in the Forest of Miracles
  • Be a Festival Founder
  • 2022 Forest of Miracles
  • Sustainably Spectacular
  • The Love & Joy Blog

15/10/2013

Shelter Al(l): In Loving Memory of Al Mitchell

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
"Royal Hudson" Creative Commons, with thanks to photographer Miss Barabanov.
Picture
By Karen O'Shannacery, OBC and Michael Markwick

This season brings home the fact of the impact we have on each other, and how ultimately irreplaceable we are to each other.

Al Mitchell was an architect of the Lookout Society as we know it today.  He passed away suddenly, leaving many of us struggling with mourning.  But all of the emotions and memories that keep welling up in this moment bring us back to the main thing about Al and what he taught us: no one is disposable, each of us irreplaceable, and we have to do everything in our power to love, serve and nurture each other.

If Al was walking among us today, he would be challenging us to rise to our best, to continue to take on the challenges, helping people who often have no where to go, or anyone to support them
.  This exhortation is especially important to keep in mind as we enter Homelessness Action Week. 

Over his twenty seven years of devoted service, Al played a life transforming role in the lives of thousands of the most vulnerable members of our community.  Inwardly, he anchored this in his faith, and outwardly it was easy for everyone to see in his tender compassion the depth and richness of his spiritual life.  Al also advocated for change in the social service system, to both reduce the risk of people becoming homeless or being put at risk in the first place.  His work was bigger than the work of the Lookout Society because he lived his spirituality and beliefs morning to night, committed to doing what was right, no matter what the obstacle, in the eyes of God and fellow human beings.  This is an important truth, even for those of us who have no religious beliefs or affiliations, because it was such a vital part of Al and everything he did.
  It's an important truth to hold on to, especially as so many of us are wrung out with grief at this moment.

For Al, this translated into two core principles that have become basic to our work.  First, he believed in making sure everything we do helps put the client back in control of his or her life and well being.  Al's generosity and caring was for the whole person, and in practice this resulted in Lookout's golden rule: "When in doubt, the client is considered right."  We work with people who have been for much of their lives or all of their lives rejected, betrayed, and stripped of the companionship that is essential for survival.  While it might seem more efficient to build an institutional culture that just kept telling them what to do, Al taught us that we should always guard against the idea that we know what's best.  He had a remarkable gift of talking to anyone, opening himself up to understand and connect with the person in front of him.  And so it was never a mechanical thing for Al to believe in the client.  The client was a human person, and our role was to do whatever was in our power to make sure this person could always decide what was in his or her best interest.

Very often this meant starting with the urgent necessity of making sure the client would actually survive the night.  This was Al's second core principle.  Ending homelessness was something we had to do structurally, by correcting the mistakes we're making as a society that result in putting people out on our streets and in our parks, but it was something we had to do personally, one individual at a time.  Al was a life saver.  To do this, he'd call us to set see in context the big, insurmountable challenges that were pushing our clients to the brink
.  Those challenges would have to be addressed, but the most important thing was to make sure this person survived the night.  Our job is to make sure, for each person in front of us, tomorrow could in fact be another day.

The Lookout Society would likely be a very different, and much diminished, organization if Al Mitchell did not exist.  There are many people alive and thriving today who would have perished if it were not for Al's work, and the way he called us to do our work with intelligent compassion.  To honour his life, we're going to raise a Christmas tree for Al at the Dundarave Festival.  Al had a strange obsession.  He loved trains, everything about them.  Al's tree will be on Dundarave Beach within ear shot of the BC Rail line. 
Join us there on Saturday November 30th as we cover it with trains and light it up at dusk for Al.  If you'd like to get things started right away, click this link to "decorate" Shelter Al's tree with a charitable donation to the Lookout Emergency Aid Society.

We are now entering Homelessness Action Week.  Let us do so in loving memory of Al Mitchell.  Let this bring a new strength in our hands, a renewed clarity of purpose and a deeper determination to end homelessness in our community.  Our friend, one way or another, is still with us and he calls us to the better angels of our nature, a loving, energetic and healing solidarity with the people who are pushed to the margins of our society.


Picture
"Royal Hudson" Creative Commons, with thanks to photographer Miss Barabanov.

Share

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details

    The Dundarave Festival Society

    We are a circle of friends working in the Dundarave Festival of Lights Society to bring to life the promise of Christmas in our community, a season of life, passion and purpose that leaves no one in the cold.  This is community-driven social change, in the true spirit of Christmas and the best spirit of our community.

    Picture

    Archives

    October 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009

    Categories

    All
    1914
    Aboriginal
    Al Mitchell
    Armistice
    Autumn
    Ballad
    Barefoot
    Bc Auditor General
    Benedict Xv
    Bonfire
    British Properties
    Canada
    Canadian
    Canadian Heritage
    Carols
    Christmas
    Christmas 2011
    Christmas Eve
    Christmas Spirit
    Christmas Tree
    Christmas Trees
    Christmas Truce
    Community
    Donne
    Doubledee
    Dundarave
    Dundarave Beach
    École Pauline Johnson
    Elderly
    Firefighters
    George Capilano
    George Vancouver
    Golden Rule
    Great Canadian Landscaping
    Hero
    Homeless
    Homelessness
    Homelessness Action Week
    Hope
    Jared Diamond
    John Babcock
    Karen O
    Karen O’Shannacery
    Kindercorps
    Kris Doubledee
    London Riots
    Lookout Emergency Aid Society
    Love
    Manhattan
    Mayor Mike Smith
    Miracle
    Morris Dancers
    Motown
    North Pacific
    North Shore
    North Shore Dragon Busters
    Order Of British Columbia
    Rembrance Day
    Royal Hudson
    Seniors
    Silent Night
    Snow
    Squamish Elders
    Squamish Nation
    Stille Nacht
    Superman
    Super Storm
    Tacloban
    Thames River Festival
    Thanksgiving
    West Vancouver
    West Vancouver Centennial
    Wildcoast Productions
    Winnipeg
    Winter
    World War I
    Wwi
    Ypres

    RSS Feed


We acknowledge with gratitude and respect that the Dundarave Festival is located on the  unceded sovereign territories of the
Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh),​and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.


We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.

Copyright © Dundarave Festival of Lights Society. All rights reserved.
PRIVACY ADVISORY: This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States . Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. 
  • Shine in the Forest of Miracles
  • Be a Festival Founder
  • 2022 Forest of Miracles
  • Sustainably Spectacular
  • The Love & Joy Blog