By Sheldon Spackman

Seeds of Hope Gala far-exceeds expectations

Oct 22, 2018 | 2:14 PM

Officials with The Mustard Seed in Red Deer are ecstatic with the success of their first ever Seeds of Hope Gala held at the Sheraton Hotel Saturday night.

Over $140,000 was raised with the ultimate goal of putting a face on homelessness.

Byron Bradley, Managing Director – Central Alberta with The Mustard Seed says close to 330 tickets were sold for the event which far-exceeded their expectations.

“So many different companies and groups in town generously made sponsorships, a lot of people bought tables and individuals that came and bought seats. Everything together was just absolutely wonderful,” said Bradley, adding the money raised will go a long way towards helping operations at The Mustard Seed and the roughly 600 people they serve each week.

“We don’t have a dishwasher at The Mustard Seed,” says Bradley. “Our volunteers spend a lot of hours washing dishes, so we were able to raise money to purchase a commercial dishwasher which is incredible. It’s going to improve the efficiency of our kitchen and also the health and safety as well.”

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Bradley says the money will also go towards extending The Mustard Seed’s meal program.

“In December we opened up the shelter in our basement and we’re going to be able to serve breakfast seven-days-a-week and also provide bag lunches to all of our sheltered guests in the morning when they leave,” states Bradley. “We also need to make some improvements and renovations downstairs so that will also help towards that.”

The Mustard Seed’s school lunch program, which last year handed out roughly 275 lunches per day with the help of over 4,000 volunteers, will also benefit from the gala. Bradley expects those numbers to grow this year.

Keynote speaker for the gala Derek Clark shared words of inspiration with the audience and knows first-hand the power of attitude in coping with adversity and overcoming hardship.

At five years of age, he was abandoned at a psychiatric hospital and for the next 13 years was in California’s foster care system, contending with rejection, humiliation, emotional distress and overwhelming anxiety.

Clark says his main message is to never give up on anyone.

“One thing we all have in common is that we were all once kids,” said Clark. “Sometimes when we grow up from kids, we make poor choices but there’s always a redemption story if someone will believe in us.

“Don’t be a life-sucker in this world, contribute,” he added. “The meaning of life to me is to give your life meaning. I’m not a dream-stealer, I’m not a hate-dealer, I’m a hope-dealer. I’m a big believer in hope and I have an acronym for hope called ‘helping one person every day’, that’s how I live my life or ‘helping other people excel’”.

Clark hopes those who attended take away a greater sense of kindness, compassion and empathy for everyone.

“Everybody’s got a story and we never know when we see a homeless man or a kid in foster care or something like that what their story is,” he points out. “Something very toxic may have happened in their life. It really comes down to you being connected to some spiritual source and for me it’s Christianity, that fuels my soul, it fuels me up and I try to be a man of Christ-like love.”

Bradley says the success of Saturday’s Seeds of Hope Gala shows the generosity and resiliency of our community.

“It shows how much the city of Red Deer cares about our most vulnerable citizens. It just absolutely blessed our hearts and we just feel so honoured and so privileged and so humbled with the support that was shown to us this weekend. It’s a testament to the care and the concern in Red Deer for Red Deer.”