'Match made in heaven': Canada Games donates bunk beds to Main Street Project
In honour of her late son, a Winnipeg mother helped two charities make life for some of the province's most vulnerable people a little better.
Arlene Last-Kolb wrote to the Canada Games in July, asking if some of the bunk beds used by athletes could be donated to the Main Street Project, a charity that provides shelter, social services and addictions and health support.
"I knew they needed bunk beds. The Summer Games had bunk beds; I knew they were only going to use them for a couple of weeks. I thought it was a match made in heaven," she said.
Last-Kolb's son Jessie died at age 24 in 2014 from a fentanyl overdose after suffering from opioid addiction for years. Jessie, once a competitive powerlifter, began taking prescription painkillers when he was 18 for a training injury.
The following year, he developed full-blown addiction to the drugs.
"My son could have been in those Games and he's not," Last-Kolb said Tuesday.
Thanks to her letter, the Canada Games is donating 20 beds to the Main Street Project and another 20 beds to Flavie-Laurent Centre, an organization that distributes free furniture and clothing to low-income Winnipeggers. The beds come with mattresses and pillows.
Viktoria Westgate, director of addictions and integrated services at Main Street Project, said the new beds will replace worn-out cots, but they'll bring more than better sleep for clients.
The new beds also will allow Westgate to free up space to create a new group counselling room and move lockers into the dormitory, so clients will have their belongings close to where they sleep.
"We are very appreciative," she said. "We just don't have funding to purchase this many beds."
About seven per cent of Main Street Project clients say opioids are their substance of choice while 23 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women at the project say they have used the drugs in the last year.
'I am proud of my son'
Last-Kolb believes Jessie, as a former athlete himself, helped her see the Canada Games as an opportunity for people battling addictions.
While Last-Kolb has spoken many times publicly about her son's death, she said it is just as important to talk about the positive legacy he leaves behind.
"I am proud of my son even today that he continues to help people like he used to all his life," she said.
Along with donating beds, the Canada Games said it will distribute toiletries such as lip balms and sunscreen to other smaller charities in Manitoba.
