A Spruce Grove, Alta., woman is taking matters into her own hands to care for the city’s most vulnerable people.

As more people fall into it homelessnessVanessa Fales makes it her mission to cheer up the city’s homeless residents through her ‘Connection Bus’. The project was inspired by his late brother’s life.

“It’s really hard to survive every day. So if we can take that off their plate and give them a gift card for something to eat and be a paying customer to sit down with Wi-Fi, so they can move forward, that’s a big part of what we do. Fales said.

Fales is the outreach coordinator for the Tri-County Pay Forward Kindness Community. The organization supports residents going through detox treatments and access to housing.

Fales hosted a bottle giveaway and fundraiser outside the city’s Walmart on Saturday, raising money to run the bus and provide food, water and other basic needs to people living on the streets.

“We have coffee, food, socks, warm things. We have hygiene supplies in the summer months. “We provide everything that the unsheltered need, like insect repellent, sunscreen, and things you wouldn’t think of that are hard for people to get,” Fales said.

Volunteers were selling 200 homemade cookies by donation or asking shoppers passing by the store to purchase the items listed on their wish list and donate to the cause.

“Right now in our community we don’t have a shelter or a place for people to sit and eat. “We don’t have a soup kitchen or anything like that,” Fales explained.

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Fales says most homeless people in the city will camp near highways just outside the city limits.

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The city has an outreach team and social services for people in distress, but Fales says they have no shelter unless winter emergency response is activated.

“They go out there and do checks there. They are quite far away. It’s pretty dangerous but it’s the best we have right now, there’s really nowhere else to go,” Fales explained.

The team is running a pop-up tent program, providing temporary shelter and sleeping bags to residents in need overnight.

“People often need to stay away from large camps if they want to end addiction and begin recovery. “We offer this place to them as a safe place.”

Residents are required to pack their belongings the next morning.

“Otherwise the bylaws (officers) will come and repeal it. “We have an agreement with the outreach team that if he is left alone, they will let us know and we will come and remove him.”

Fales’ passion for supporting the city’s vulnerable community stems from his brother, Kevin Vezina.

Vezina died in a motorcycle accident in Penticton, BC, in 2014. Fales says he has lived a troubled life and is trying to put his life together. He was receiving help from the Gospel Mission in B.C.

“He passed away with a ticket to bed 30 at the Gospel Mission, and things got really dark for me,” he explained.

“With the judgment and difficulties he faced in his life when he died, I wanted to do something to help people who were in his situation and trying to change their lives,” he added.

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The organization is funded by Spruce Grove families and local businesses.

The bus was loaned to him by Brad Mastaler, president of Computer Insights Inc. in Stony Plain. Fales says they covered the operating costs and insurance of the bus.

The bus is usually based at Rotary Park several evenings a week. People would often stop by to gather essentials or stay warm. Eventually Fales would like to take the bus around the city, but operating costs are currently too high. He hopes the fundraiser will support his goals to travel around the city.

Before the bus, Fales converted his personal vehicle into a makeshift crisis support van.

“We wanted to have a safe space for people to come and kind of call home,” he said.

Fales didn’t have a specific goal goal in mind for the fundraiser, but she’s hoping this will be enough to start working toward her goals.

The bus will be used throughout the winter to serve the unsheltered in your community.

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