{"id":15663,"date":"2016-10-26T17:47:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15663"},"modified":"2016-10-26T17:47:09","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:47:09","slug":"welcoming-arms-volunteers-mark-first-decade-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/welcoming-arms-volunteers-mark-first-decade-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming Arms volunteers mark first decade of service"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably an anniversary they\u2019d have sooner not reached, but Welcoming Arms marked its first decade of helping disadvantaged Aurora residents last week with a salute to the volunteers that make everything happen.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019re still here because we\u2019re needed,\u201d said Susan Lanthier-Doyle, a founding member of Welcoming Arms, which was established by Aurora Cornerstone Church, Aurora United Church, Campus Church, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, St. Andrew\u2019s Presbyterian Church, and Trinity Anglian Church to serve needy parishioners and the community as a whole. \u201cThere is still a need in Aurora for what we can offer. We would not be here if it wasn\u2019t for the wonderful volunteers, sponsors, and benefactors that have helped us for the past 10 years.\u201d
\nWhat they offer is practically limitless. Through their volunteers, they offer skills coaching, money management advice, grocery cards, transit tickets, and toiletries to those seeking their help. What they can\u2019t provide themselves, they help foster through their extensive network of contacts and relationships with community organizations and departments at all levels of government to make happen.
\n\u201cThe support from the clergy right from the beginning was very important,\u201d said fellow founder Beverley Wood. \u201cThey thought it would be worthwhile if we worked together and that, to me, is such a beautiful gift. That has carried us here through where we are now.\u201d
\nThey now work two days a week out of The Rectory, the historic home behind Trinity. Today, Welcoming Arms is helmed by Executive Director Julie Cruickshank who underscored the importance of teamwork.
\n\u201cThere is such a commonality in what we believe in and how we impart that belief through the service of what we\u2019re doing through this agency that there are no differences,\u201d she said. \u201cWe find commonalities and we don\u2019t run up against any differences. It is such an easy relationship between all of the churches and all of the volunteers because there are no barrier or borders. We all have the same belief.\u201d
\nAdded Ms. Wood: \u201cWe each have a God of our understanding and we respect the groups that are represented here as volunteers, we respect the people who come and visit us. The common element is we\u2019re here to be a benefit to those people who need some extra assistance.\u201d
\nWhile they come together with a shared belief, they also share in the same common challenge: funding.
\nIt\u2019s a perennial issue faced by so many organizations, but co-founder Gail Kerstein said they are fortunate that they have never come to a point where they have run out of money.
\n\u201cWe have always been able to help everyone that comes through the door,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that shows tremendous faith from our various churches. The congregations all come together and help with the funding.\u201d
\nBut, will that model continue into the future. Over the last few years. Ms. Cruickshank said a growing concern is people who used to be considered \u201cmiddle class\u201d are now finding themselves \u201clow income families.\u201d
\n\u201cThere seems to be a shift in people who used to be doing okay and could make a life for themselves can no longer do that because the cost of living has gone up so drastically and so many of them have lost their jobs or been downsized,\u201d said Ms. Cruickshank.
\nAdded Ms. Lanthier-Doyle: \u201cThe needs have grown. We still see some of the same people we saw 10 years ago, but we are seeing so many new people that come in. They have jobs, but they just can\u2019t make ends meet. We can listen. So many people have so many issues and we\u2019re able to listen and give some direction if we\u2019re asked. We provide a little bit of a smile and a little bit of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s probably an anniversary they\u2019d have sooner not reached, but Welcoming Arms marked its first decade of helping disadvantaged Aurora residents last week with a salute to the volunteers that make everything happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2016-10-27-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-44D","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 13:46:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}