From the warmth of Quality Foods’ cafeteria, an elderly man peers out at the school playing field across the street where hundreds of sea gulls scratch the srubby grass searching for worms.
“They know me, they get excited when they see me leaving the store,” says Mr. Em.
Because he’s a senior citizen known for his and his wife’s generosity, the man keeps his private information safe. For this story, he asked to be called Mr. Em.
Even so, he is well-known amongst the street community where he is immediatly recognized and welcomed. He gives food and drink – whatever he has to offer from his own resources.
Mr. Em says he’s lived in the area for nearly 20 years and is known at the grocery store where they give him their old bread so that he can feed the sea gulls on his way home.
“They (the sea gulls) know where I live and sometimes, if I don’t have bread, I have to drive another way to town so they don’t see me and get excited,” he chuckled about the sea gulls.
Mr. Em even carries pet treats in his pocket for the dogs he sees in his travels.
He was born in Germany in 1935, four years before the outbreak of the Second World War. With the war still raging across Europe and Pacific, in 1943 Mr. Em and his family moved to Montreal, where he attended school. He went to University at a time when it only took two years to earn a teaching degree.
Mr. Em always preferred to do things on his own time, so when he turned his photography skills into a business, it didn’t do well, because people liked getting their prints in a timely manner. He says the same thing about “professional volunteering” where you have to show up at certain times and work a set number of hours. That doesn’t work for him.
So, Mr. Em likes to help people in his own way. He noted that there is help available for people struggling in Port Alberni, but Mr. Em noticed a gap. In extreme weather, for example, there’s places for people to go warm up or cool down, but for the most part, it’s on the condition of sobriety.
There are some people left outside on hot days or in extreme cold. There’s not a lot of those extreme temperature days, but when they happen, Mr. Em says he will be on the streets in his van or on his scooter, handing out refreshements.
In the summer, when the heat rises above 80 Fahrenheit, Mr. Em freezes about 80 cans of pop then delivers them to heat exhausted people around town. In the winter, when the temperature drops below freezing, he will pack a gas stove, some water and hot chocolate and hand out hot drinks from his van.
“I’ll go down to the Safe Injection Site, the Bread of Life, the Shelter on Eighth or the corner of 10th and Redford,” said Mr. Em.
He says people are so hot in the summer, walking up long hills or lying in the streets.
“I try to help people in difficult situations,” he said.
But since he has limited resources, he helps out only in extreme weather.
‘Everybody knows him’
Those down at the Safe Injection Site lite up when they hear Mr. Em’s name.
“Everybody knows him,” said Harold Tomren, adding that Mr. Em even helped his cousin with a mobility scooter. “He always helps out with hot chocolate and cookies, and in the summer he’ll bring plums and cherries from his trees.”
Mya Driver, a harm reduction outreach worker with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, has known him for several years. She met him when Mr. Em fixed her son’s go-cart.
Driver spoke of his generosity and added that he’s been known to help people fix their mobility scooters. He’s even purchased a couple for people who were immobile but couldn’t afford their own scooters, said Driver.
In his early career as a teacher Mr. Em went to Churchill, Manitoba to work with Inuit high school students. It was a residential school, he said, but it was a voluntary one. The smaller villages had elementary schools but if you wanted higher grades, you had to send your teenagers to Churchill for high school or vocational school.
He recalled that teachers were encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities with the students. He said they would build snow forts or ride snowmobiles.
There was a period when Mr. Em traveled to places like India, England, and Africa where he taught for a short time, learning languages and customs.
“In some Scandinavian countries, if you’re out of work, you get a counsellor. Here, the government has programs to maintain people, but I think they should be more involved in helping people change their situation,” he shared.
When he returned to Canada, Mr. Em landed in northern Alberta, where he worked as a ground water technician. He would drill wells working for the government and Métis people. That is where he met his wife. They started their family in Alberta.
But Alberta Environment, he said, wanted to get rid of people so he retired a year early and the Em’s moved to Port Alberni where they could reconnect with family.
‘I feel a certain obligation’
After a lifetime working with his hands, Mr. Em became good at building and fixing anything mechanical, especially bicycles and scooters.
“So I go to thrift stores and if there’s a scooter there that needs repair, I’ll buy it,” he said.
Mr. Em estimates he’s fixed 10 to 15 scooters over the past six years and he’s given them away, but he has conditions for his gift.
“They have to be able to look after it, they have to have a place to store and they cannot sell it,” he said.
He helped an elderly man acquire a repaired scooter. The man eventually ended up in a care home. Recently, the man passed away and his estate left Mr. Em a pair of scooters and a wheelchair.
“The wheelchair and a scooter were donated to the hospital,” said Mr. Em.
He plans to give the other scooter to an 83-year-old who uses a walker. She can only walk on flat ground so he hopes that she will accept the scooter so she can improve her mobility, but she’s nervous about getting to know how to use one.
After fixing up his own house, Mr. Em helps his neighbors where he can with home maitenance. He has a 100-year-old neighbor who needed help with her siding.
“I enjoy being helpful. I like seeing people who are grateful for the help,” he told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
But it can be expensive, with $25 to $80 for supplying refreshments to people each trip, or more than $600 to replace a scooter battery.
Mr. Em says he and his wife have pensions and government benefits, along with enough savings to be comfortable. Both do what they can to support their community and its charitable causes.
“I feel a certain obligation to help others and I’m grateful for being able to feed the birds and dogs and to help people,” said Mr. Em.
He plans to continue doing what he’s doing for as long as he can and he’s happy because he can it whenever he wants to.
