Linda (Lou) Hachey, Author at Montreal Anglican

Mile End Mission is being mindful of our impact on the climate: Every step counts!

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:04:43 +0000

With the kind assistance of Mark Gibson, Chair of the Stewardship of the Environment Committee of the Diocese of Montreal, and the generous financial support of several donors, the Mile End Mission has taken another meaningful step toward sustainability.

We’re delighted to announce the installation of a York HH8 series cold-climate heat pump, replacing our aging gas-powered HVAC system.

This new green-energy solution will keep our Mission warm in the winter and cool in the summer and significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. By lowering NOx and particulate emissions, it will also improve the overall air quality for everyone who walks through our doors. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Mark for his guidance and expertise throughout this process.

For several years, the Mission has also been committed to recycling the used clothing we cannot sell in our Friperie. These items are shipped to communities in need around the world, ensuring they find a second life while reducing textile waste.

As we continue our work in the Mile End community, we are mindful that every action contributes to a healthier planet. Together, we are making a difference one step at a time.

ABOUT US
Mile End Community Mission is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organization and community centre working with members of the community who have been marginalized by society for a variety of reasons. Our services are used by people of all ages, many of whom struggle with addiction, are in poverty and/or are homeless. We strive not only to help these people, but to empower them to help themselves.

HOW TO HELP
In this season of giving we are always happy to accept financial contributions. Go to www.mileendmission.org/donate/
In addition, the mission is pleased to accept:

FOOD DONATIONS
Unopened non-perishable food, including canned food, rice, and pasta, dropped off to us Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 3pm.
We also welcome fresh produce and fruits, in larger quantities, to be used for our lunch and breakfast programs.

CLOTHING DONATIONS
In-season, clean and undamaged clothing for our small thrift store: “Clothes that you would be proud to wear yourself.” We also accept gently used winter coats and boots.
Drop in our bin at the corner of Bernard and St. Urbain.

OTHER DONATIONS
Other items on our wishlist include: personal care supplies (including toothpaste, tooth brushes, deodorant), warm sleeping bags and gently used or new art supplies.
Drop off to us Tuesday to Friday, from 10am to 3pm.

Our Address:
99 Bernard Street West
Montreal, Quebec
H2T 2J9

From all of us at the Mission we would like to thank everyone at the Diocese who has contributed to our program over the years. We wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The post Mile End Mission is being mindful of our impact on the climate: Every step counts! appeared first on Montreal Anglican.

Inspired Paths for our Kids

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:06:37 +0000

In this crazy fast-paced world filled with harsh realities, constant changes and challenges that are brought to us in never-ending ‘Breaking News’ alerts and alarms everywhere you turn … you just have to wonder how the children are processing the images of reality they are coming across!

So, with this in the back of our minds, we were thrilled that more Mile End Mission kids got to have a break this past summer to experience a fun-filled and peaceful week within the beautiful arms of nature at the Quebec Lodge Outdoor Centre on Lake Massawippi in Hatley, Québec.

Once again, this camp experience was made possible through the Anglican Foundation of Canada’s annual ‘Say Yes! to Kids’ fundraising initiative and generous donors in our community.
For a second year, another one of our campers, Devon, loved the experience so much that he now wants to become a camp counsellor. Paige, who went to camp with the Mission kids last year was hired this past summer as a camp counsellor in the Laurentians!

More than ever, our kids need to experience the wonders of nature, be shown new paths and be inspired.

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Save the Date! October 17th

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:05:06 +0000

Tuesday October 17th, 2023 at 6 p.m. Petros Restaurant: 234 Laurier Ave. West.

You are cordially invited to attend the Mile End Community Mission’s 15th Annual Thanksgiving Benefit Dinner. This important annual fundraiser will help the Mission continue its vital work of providing care, inspiration and hope to disadvantaged individuals and families in the Mile-End and surrounding areas.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, guests will have the opportunity to support our community while enjoying a wonderful evening surrounded by old and new friends of the Mission!

Tickets are $200 per person and a tax receipt for $125 will be available. The evening will also include an auction and a raffle with many great prizes donated by friends in the community.

For additional information about the dinner or to purchase tickets, please call Lou or Lori at the Mission: 514 274-3401 or send us an email at fundraising@mileendmission.org
We hope you can join us!

If you are unable to attend, your kind donations will help us include two VIP tables of Mission members.

Thank you!
Lou & all your friends at the Mile End Mission

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Summer Returned to the Mile End Mission!

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 14:37:20 +0000

Well, we certainly were back in business this summer with a wonderful Open House and community BBQ in June, and group outings to Yamaska National Park beach, the Verdun beach, the Granby Zoo and water park in July and August.

Through generous funding received from our friends at the Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation as well as the Organix Foundation, and thanks to the efforts of our lovely staff: Lori, Missy and Trevor, these intergenerational outings were a great success.

And, of course, throughout the summer we enjoyed many fun and relaxing days with our members; simply socializing, playing music and eating watermelon and popsicles out on our peaceful sidewalk-terrace.

After two years of not being able to enjoy any of these activities, we were all so thrilled to be able to get back in the swing of things, be with each other and have fun!

Serving our meals both indoors and on the terrace, our three fabulous summer-program staff, Kai, Paige and Sequoia helped make sure that everyone received welcoming hospitality and care during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

The Mission’s fabulous Leadership team of volunteer-members continued to ensure that our friperie Joyce, our Community Art group, our weekly food bank and our free meals program ran as smooth as usual.

Through the generous funding of the Anglican Foundation of Canada we were able – for the first time – to send children to the Quebec Camp Lodge in Hatlely, QC. Walmart Canada helped us equip the kids with sleeping bags and other camp necessities. In fact, we actually sent 14 kids to overnight camp. We were also able to send Paige who joined the kids and volunteered her services in the camp kitchen for a week!

Bringing TLC to the Mission on a regular basis, our Chaplin, Rev Ros Macgregor brought us lovely cards of encouragement, little gifts for special occasions and again helped us get our garden blooming in the spring. With the sudden passing of three of our dear friends at the Mission this past winter and spring, Ros made sure to offer her care and support to all who needed a shoulder to cry on.

While we did have a bout of COVID-19 at the Mission during the summer, thankfully, it was a mild case for the majority of people who had it.

While none of us know what’s in store for the fall in terms of Covid-19, we’re planning to move forward with a visit to the apple orchard and pumpkin picking fields in September. As the fall unfolds, we’ll continue as always to try and find ways to help our community through whatever may come – with compassion, care, dignity …and fun too.

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Innocence and Wonder

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 21:15:26 +0000

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, our individual and shared sense of reality and stability has certainly been shaken to its roots.

For children of the Mile End Community Mission – who were already facing so many life challenges and uncertainties due to a daily struggle with poverty – the pandemic seemed to further erode whatever sense of innocence they may have managed to hold onto.

Unable to engage the Mission’s children and families in group activities or outings for the past two years, we’ve missed so many opportunities to get together as a community and help support our young members and families through it all.

As things often unfold at the Mission, however, new possibilities unexpectedly came to us towards the end of last summer. At that time we received an email from Bishop Mary who introduced us to the good folks at the Quebec Lodge Outdoor Center who proposed an exciting opportunity to collaborate on a summer camp project.

The Quebec Lodge Outdoor Centre is a children’s summer camp located on 70 acres of forested land on the shores of Lake Massawippi in the Eastern Townships. The camp has an educational mandate to teach environmental awareness and healthy living. One of the guiding principles of the Quebec Lodge Foundation, which owns the camp, is to ensure that no child is prevented from attending for financial reasons.

For a number of years, we’ve wanted to develop a relationship with an innovative summer camp to send our kids to and we are thrilled to have finally found an enthusiastic partner. As the President of the Quebec Lodge Foundation, Ruth Sheeran, remarked, “We are very excited to be working with the Mile End Mission. It realizes a long-standing goal to bring children from low-income urban areas to the camp. We look forward to developing a constructive partnership.”

The aim of this project – which we’ve named A Nature Mission – is to provide a group of ten to twelve children, aged ten to fourteen, with a wonderful opportunity to spend a week in the country enjoying and learning about nature and the environment at the beautiful Quebec Lodge Outdoor center.

With support from both our own Bishop Mary and Bishop Bruce of Quebec, we submitted a funding application to the Anglican Foundation of Canada’s Say Yes! To kids 2021 call for proposals.

Just before the Christmas holidays, we received confirmation that our project had been accepted for funding and that we would receive $5,000 in the spring!

We are all very grateful for this funding which will cover the cost of camp fees for the children. The Quebec Lodge Foundation will cover the transportation costs, and the Mission will work with the QL Foundation to acquire the necessary supplies through

donations from individuals and businesses (e.g. bathing suits, sunscreen, sleeping bags etc.).

The camp experience is scheduled to take place over the last week two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August, 2022, with groups of two to three children taking part for one week during this four-week time frame.

We are certain that following these past years’ tough lock-downs and restrictions, the children will more than benefit from a week at this camp with its beautiful open spaces from which to explore nature, develop new friendships and create lasting memories. They will also be able to revel in the freedom, independence and growth that comes from being away from home, probably for the first time in their lives.

Leaving behind all the traffic and noise on their way up to the camp, the children will gradually be able to disarm themselves of the various life challenges and constraints that often limit their curiosity and their sense of self, adventure and fun. It is also hoped that through this experience, the children will come to believe in the great potential their lives have for ongoing growth, change and new opportunities.

On a recent visit to the camp, I decided to remain at the picnic table outside the main hall while others went to check out the lake. As I sat there in silence, taking in nature on this beautiful warm and wind-free day, hundreds of leaves from the surrounding trees suddenly let go simultaneously, falling to the ground all around me. It was just their time to let go, I thought to myself. In those brief moments under the trees, I felt innocence, I felt wonder. This is my wish this for all the children who will take part in A Nature Mission this summer.

To learn more go to:

www.quebeclodge.org or https://mileendmission.org

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Open minds Open designs Open lives

Linda (Lou) Hachey — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:35:18 +0000

After a grueling period of Covid-19 restrictions with freezing winter line-ups outside the Mission for hot take-out meals, groceries and other needed supplies…. our dreams of warmer weather, loosened regulations and an end to curfews brought a whole new vision of a spring and summer wrapped in hope and TLC.
Witnessing the re-opening of restaurants and terraces everywhere and the joy this brought, we thought, YES! Let’s create an expanded outdoor terrace for our members so that they too can gather together, terrace-café style, to enjoy the sights and sounds of the neighborhood in the company of friends.
So, in came the new bistro sets with umbrellas and folding benches which made the Mission look more like a café than a soup kitchen. We laughed to ourselves as passers-by often looked quizzically as if to say, “I didn’t know there was a café here”.
The expansion of our existing ‘Terrace Connie’ wrapped around the corner of Bernard and St. Urbain streets and accommodates up to 30 people. Our summer staff started each morning by setting up the Mission café, preparing a huge vat of coffee and then serving our members refreshments and snacks throughout the day as though they were customers at any neighborhood café-terrace. Additional activities at our terrace setting included a tea party, weekly art sessions, BBQ lunches, choose-your-toppings ice-cream events and a couple of outdoor bazaars organized by Doris and her team. It also served as the meeting point for other fun activities in the city.
We also set up an outdoor speaker so we could listen to Trevor’s fabulous playlist of music that he’s been putting together since he started working with us eight years ago. As Carlene, Missy, Eddy and Eleni balanced their days coordinating all activities related to food, they kept a watchful eye on our members’ needs for cold water and popsicles during the intense summer heat. Together with our other Leadership Team members, Micheline, Helen and Michel, regular lunch and food bank services were provided at the door.
The positive energy and atmosphere that has been engendered by simply re-thinking and re-designing our summer set-up has truly helped increase both personal and community dignity at the Mission. It also tied in nicely with the sentiment of one of our Mission friends, James, who often refers to the Mission as ‘the Club’. There’s no doubt that sitting comfortably in a bistro chair being served tea and biscuits is much more appealing and comforting than standing, for all to see, in a Mission food line. Unfortunately, because we have over 100 people coming to our weekly Food Bank, we don’t yet have enough tables and chairs for everyone.
As we carefully strived to protect our community from the Covid-19 virus, Lori took important steps to help as many members as possible receive their two vaccinations. But this seemingly simple task was riddled with road blocks for many of our members, since the vast majority don’t have access to a computer, internet, or in many cases, a telephone. Many others struggle with language or literacy challenges and/or find automated call centres too difficult to navigate. Mobility problems also prevented some members from being able to walk to a bus stop to go to the vaccination centre where they would then need to stand for long periods of time. With all this in mind, Lori just knew that she had to become deeply involved in the process in order to help our Mission friends overcome real-life barriers that could prevent them from getting vaccinated.
At the writing of this article, the sun is still shining strongly and the sights and sounds of summer still abound. With great hope for continued positive Covid-19 outcomes, we wonder how we’ll continue to re-think and re-design our approach to poverty, to community, to life.

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