With the holidays fast approaching, many people in tough spots are starting to worry about the holiday season. It can be especially scary for people who are newly out of an abusive relationship, and they may not have the resources they need to support themselves on a regular basis – let alone with the financial strain of December. To lighten this load, Howick resident Tim Irvine has been collecting items to help people out.
Irvine is a Freemason and has spent the last 10 years in that community. He is the fifth generation of Freemasons in his family; his maternal grandfather was once a grand master for all of Quebec. “In [Free]masonry, one of the things is to be a good person and help where you can,” he says. This is one of the reasons why he is committed to collecting donations.
His former lodge used to donate money to the West Island Women’s Shelter every year, but it stopped a few years ago. When Irvine was appointed leader, he decided to start this back up again. Last year, despite being a bit late, he was able to organize a truck full of donations for a charity group in Greenfield Park that supported 240 families. This year, his lodge merged with one that was doing a bit better, and they “hit the ground running,” he says.
Irvine currently has enough donations for women in need to fill a large U-Haul: over 100 bags of clothes, toys, TVs, video games, coffee makers, and more.
Something that frustrates him most is the abuse that women suffer at the hands of men. Their circumstances sometimes leave them completely without resources. “A lot of the time these women are forced to leave in the middle of the night with their kids in tow, and they’re left with nothing,” he says. He especially wants to help at this time of year because “There’s nothing worse than having a kid or a mother without anything for Christmas.”
His mother, Daphne Aldridge, says, “He needs to be recognized for the job he’s done along with his Masonic brothers, family, and friends who have all donated what they could. He’s pretty amazing.”
Irvine sends out a special thank you to the Chateauguay lodge number 36 and the Victory Through Harmony lodge number 94, which were very supportive of his efforts this year. For now, he is not collecting any more donations, unless he has already been in touch with donors about something specific. “Every time I get another load, I bang my head against the wall because I don’t have the space,” he jokes. But there is always next year.