St. Mark’s Place held a well-attended open house on Thursday, March 7 for donors and supporters of the Indwell project to transform the church into affordable and supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. The event featured speeches by key partners in the project, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, cake to celebrate and public tours of the renovated spaces.
Trillium has been hard at work to help welcome the new residents to their new homes. Back in November, 84 quilts were delivered to the Indwell staff at St. Mark’s Place as part of the “43 Quilts in 43 Days” project led by the Quilting group at Trillium.
A special mention to the 11 churches who responded to Trillium’s call for quilts, some from over 2 hours away. Due to their generosity, Trillium almost doubled the original goal of quilts. This meant that each resident who arrived at St. Mark’s Place not only got a quilt but could choose which one they would like for their room.
43 Hygiene Kits and 2 Pantry Kits were also assembled by Trillium members and delivered as welcome gifts to the residents, in addition to the quilts. The Trillium Knitting Circle also partnered with another knitting group from the neighbourhood to send 49 knitted hats to St. Mark’s Place this past February.
Photos by Pastor Elina
An enormous thank you to Pastor Elina and Marlene Lennox for their leadership in this process, along with staff, volunteers, youth, friends and neighbours, who gave their time and talents weekly to help ensure the residents feel welcome and supported by their community. See St. Mark’s Place featured on 100 Huntley Street below:
Interested in helping in our outreach activities? We are currently collecting gently used books and games for the St. Mark’s Place common room. There will be a bin set out each Sunday or you can
drop off items to Monica in the office at Trillium during the week.
Also, consider joining our Knitting Circle or Quilting Group…no experience required!
The Knitting Circle meets every Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the Parlour.
The Quilting Group meets on Mondays at 9:00 a.m. in the Coach House.
All are welcome!