Thread by @HarvestHillsYYC

**WARNING TRIGGERS** (I HAVE PERMISSION TO SHARE STORY)

Today was stressful & hard. It was emotional. I broke down in tears along side my volunteers & a young mother of two, who felt like her world was ending. She wanted to save her children from what she's had to endure.

She didn't want to end up a statistic. She chose to leave a volatile living situation & move to a safe place where she began the process of living for herself & living for her children.

She chose life not abuse. She chose her kids over her partner. She chose smiles over tears.

She told all of us that she had been planning for over a year to leave & was on the verge of leaving when #Covid19AB happened.

She was scared/afraid/had panic attacks not knowing how to help herself let alone her children. Then she saw us on @GlobalCalgary with @global_leslie.

So she reached out to @HarvestHillsYYC and called me on #Monday of this week & asked us for help. I didn't say no. I refused to say no. Especially since, once upon a time some years ago...I was in the same place as she was and I saw myself and my own children in her and her kids.

So over the past week, we planned & planned & gathered as much supplies as we could & talked about our upcoming coffee date in the park. (Due to Covid Rules).

Adrenaline was at an all time high & not even @merylyyc knew what was going on. (The less people who knew the better.

Then the time came. The perfect opportunity. She called us and asked us if we had time to do our coffee date this afternoon.

We said we would be right over. So we went with everything we had prepared and we were in and out in less than an hour and a half.

The reason this young mother wanted me to share this story tonight is because she wanted people male or female that #DomesticViolence is wrong on so many levels. She wanted to let everyone know that there is #NoShame in #AskingForHelp.

So as we moved her and her children into a #safeplace. We were able to breathe a sigh of #relief. As the #kids laughed over who got to feed their new beta fish first,(Provided by @PetlandCA) This mom noticed that for the first time she stood a little bit straighter & she smiled.

So as we gathered our things up & got ready to leave, she tried to speak but tears of relief & gratitude were in place of her voice. We stood there with tears in our eyes and sniffling when one of my volunteers just said to me: "Jen, what you said on TC the other day was right."

I looked at him & said "How so?" To which he replied "Well you said Come Hell or High Water we said we'd help people & Come Hell or High Water we did. We helped this family move, feel safe again, & more importantly, we helped them to have a future...all because we helped"

This is one of the many reasons we #Help #Everyone here in #Calgary. If we can't help people, we will refer them to someone or another group that can. But we would not be able to do what we do without donations.

Donations that we so desperately are in great need of. If anyone can help by donating even as little as a $1.00. Trust me when I say each and every single bit of donations help us to be able to help other #Calgarians who are in #Need of #Help.

We can accept Etransfers & PayPal.

Etransfers:

[e-mail]

PayPal:

PayPal.Me/HarvestHillsCa…

If you can please donate, the #People of #Calgary that we #help will be eternally #Grateful.

If anyone would like to know more on how to help, please send us a DM here or call/text 403-608-7224 for more info.

@Crackmacs @CherylCourt @burnaby1953 @JenRLabelle @Christina_Suz @paul_yyc @Tinu @global_leslie @GlobalCalgary @JackiePerez__ @ChahalGeorge @NDPJulia @Hell_Berta

#Calgary #Alberta #Edmonton #Canada #TheWorldCares #PeopleCare #ICare #WeCare #DomesticViolence #domesticviolenceawareness #COVIDSecondWave #Twitter #Survivor #AbuseisnotLove #AbuseTalk #Mentalhealth #MentalHealthMatters #ChildreninNeed #Compassion #Hope #Retweet #Share

A big thank you to my #muscle that came out to help #tonight and to make sure we all stayed #safe. A thank you to my #volunteers who took the #kids on an #adventure to get their very first Beta Fish. A thank you to @ENMAX for hooking up new services so quickly.

A thank you to @TELUS for hooking up services as well. A huge Huge HUge HUGe HUGE #ThankYou to @sobeys for letting us use both gift cards & our bank cards to pay for their groceries. Without the help of these businesses & volunteers it would have made tonight just a bit harder.