A Nearly 50 Year Volunteer Tradition Continues

Heather Atkins still remembers the exact date when The Salvation Army entered her life.

On January 17, 1973, she was living in Toronto with her husband and five children in a rented apartment. Another tenant fell asleep while smoking at 2 a.m. and the resulting fire burned down the shared house.

The family was now out on the street in bare feet in a cold Toronto winter with nowhere to turn. As the fire raged and hope seemed lost, a Salvation Army vehicle driven by uniformed Salvationists arrived on the scene. The family received something to eat and were taken to an Eaton’s department store. The Salvation Army gave hope to the family by providing clothes, warm winter coats, hats and boots.

“That was my first connection to The Salvation Army, and I have maintained my connection ever since. I am giving back what they gave to me,” Heather said.

After that tragedy, Heather, who is 74, joined the Church and began volunteering. For 15 years in Peterborough, she developed the Sunday School curriculum, which she also taught and managed. She also spent many summers at the former Salvation Army Summer camp on Roblin Lake, where she oversaw the camp’s craft program.

One camp story that stuck with her all these years is about a boy that stepped off the bus and told Heather that he didn’t want to be there, that his mother had made him attend.

“He dropped his stuff and started to run, so I ran after him over fences, through the fields and the water,” she remembers.

When she caught up the boy after five minutes of running, she found him sitting on a log, crying. Heather asked him if he was hurt.

“He said, ‘No. No one has every loved me that much to chase me this far.’”

“I just broke down and cried with him. He was the best kid in the camp for the whole week and when it was time to go home, he didn’t want to go. It tells me why I was there, for that one child.”

Heather currently divides her time between assisting those in need at the Cobourg Food Bank and with the Shawl Ministry. The Shawl Ministry is a group of 12 women from The Salvation Army Cobourg Community Church, and other in-town churches, that knit or crochet shawls for adults or children in hospital, those that have lost a family member or are confined at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a prayer that goes with the shawl that indicates the love that went into making the shawl. It is love and prayer and God’s wishes all wrapped up in the shawl. They feel that love when they put the shawl on,” Heather said.

At the food bank, she is the first person that the client sees when they need a meal or a drink. This has continued in Cobourg throughout the pandemic, albeit with restrictions in place. Not even COVID-19 can keep Heather from volunteering her time to help others.

“I enjoy spreading the love of God and that is the last thing I say as they are leaving our building. I make them stop in their tracks and I say, ‘One minute, don’t forget God loves you.’ One of our clients, before I said it to her, she said it to me last week. It really touched me. She knows that God loves her, and she wants me to know that, too.”

To provide financial support to The Salvation Army, donations can be made online at www.salvationarmy.ca or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY, where donations can also be directed to a specific program or location.