Finding Hope Downtown

Finding Hope Downtown

Cars are out for a drive in St. John's downtown location.
Melissa Wong/My Online Journalism Blog

By Melissa Wong
My Online Journalism Blog

ST. JOHN’S- Locals came together on November 28, 2017, to sing carols, have refreshments, and make donations. After the power efficient sign reading “hope” brightened the holidays, Stella’s Circle’s staff accepted donations.

“Why do we light up ‘hope’ as a sign during this season? We do that because our tagline is hope lives here, and so we thought it was really important that we would light up the letters ‘hope’ at Christmas time” said Gale Thornhill, the director of housing services, as she stood on the wooden stairs of Rawlins Cross. “We are going to ask our friend, Nicole, to light up ‘hope.’ We are doing to count down from five…”

“Four… Three… Two… One!” The large crowd on the lawn that had spilled onto the sidewalk chanted as they waited for Nichole Cox to turn on the electric sign.

“Yay!” Several members of the crowd cheered. Soft cries of joy and the muffled sounds of many gloved hands clapping broke the cold air’s silence. The light from the word “hope” cut through the dark night as the light fell over the snow-dusted crowd giving money to Stella’s Circle’s staff wearing Santa hats.

The third annual Light up Hope initiative was organized by Stella’s Circle on the Global Day of Giving known as Giving Tuesday. The organization’s mission is to improve the lives of others, through community inclusion.

According to http://www.stellascircle.ca, Stella’s Circle was created in memory of Dr. Stella Burry who established social work and dedicated her life to helping others. Those who followed after Burry have not stopped developing new creative ways to help make the community a better place.

“At Stella’s Circle, our mission is to transform lives with real homes, real work, and real help” Marlayne Hardy, the marketing manager at Stella Circle said. “We have hope signs at four of our other locations in the downtown area.”

The 2017 Light Up Hope Initiate was safe and effective with LED lights because these decorations did not get hot and lasted longer than most other lights. The four large hope signs were environmentally friendly and spread the message to help the poor both financially and emotionally.

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