It is easy to get caught up in the day and lose sight of how small of a population there is in the province of Saskatchewan. With just barely over a million people, and almost 50 per cent of citizens residing in our two major cities, the isolation of those in small communities makes for strong ties to the nearest city. Medstead has these well-fortified ties to the city of North Battleford. These ties mean mutual support, such as donations to local events and providing employment to residents of surrounding villages. Bonds such as these are ideally symbiotic, something whose reciprocation is often difficult to achieve from the footing of a small village or community.
This posed just a small obstacle for Medstead Good Samaritan, Heather Pederson, who created and co-ordinated a series of 鈥渂lessing bags鈥� for the less fortunate in the Battlefords. Pederson indicates that her friend, Barry Hannah of Red Deer, Alta, delivered flowers, chocolate, cards and toys to the hospital and Ronald McDonald houses this past Christmas. Pederson and her mother lent a hand and Heather notes, 鈥淗is project got me thinking that I could do something in my own community to 鈥榮pread smiles鈥欌��
After posting to Facebook a blurb of her intentions and welcoming donations, either items or financial, it was not long before funds and materials were gathered to create 30 bags. Bev McCrostie, Barry Hannah, Julie Mack, Sheryl Gillespie, Christine Freethy, Barbara Ann Janzen and Brenna Knapman all gave funds and some items. This brought the value to a total of $310. In addition to this, Pederson added funds in the amount of $250.聽
To fill the bags, Chandra Pederson, village librarian, allowed for the use of the Medstead library. Christine Freethy and Heather Pederson met at the library to sort items and fill the bags. These blessing bags contained gum, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hot chocolate and a chocolate bar, shampoo and conditioner, lotion, Kleenex, Emergen C, instant coffee, hand warmers, tuna and crackers, basic first aid items, and feminine products in addition to some other small items. New 2U of Spiritwood donated toques, gloves and socks.
These items may seem commonplace, but when the cold is biting, the issue of homelessness grows by nature in its severity. When larger gestures aren鈥檛 being seen in the city, small scale initiatives step up and make a difference. The Monday slated delivery of these tokens of goodwill in equal part to the men鈥檚, women鈥檚 and youth shelters as executed by Pederson have potential for a strong impact. While ill fortune impacting even just 30 denizens is the opposite of ideal, with initiative like that of Heather Pederson and efforts of all the other contributors, it shows that the issues are in the public consciousness. From Birch Lake to Spiritwood and Medstead to the Battlefords, people are in a shared condition and actions like these 鈥渟pread smiles鈥� across the map.
