Outstanding NeighbourLink volunteer honoured at Volunteer Calgary Leadership Awards

Howard Christensen must be Calgary’s most travelled man – within the city limits, mind you. He’s journeyed not so much to the far corners of the world as to the deep pockets of the quadrants.

“The girls upstairs knew very well that if they had a hamper to deliver that nobody else could take, it didn’t matter, I’d go anywhere for them,” says Christensen, 82.

The ‘girls upstairs’ are NeighbourLink’s HelpLine operators – women on the frontlines of Calgary’s war on poverty.

Calgarians in need phone them in order to access free furniture, household items, baby supplies, bus tickets, Calgary Food Bank hamper deliveries and more.

That way the money clients do have can be used to keep a roof over their heads – because what good is a bed without a room in which to sleep, or a crib when you and your child are living in and out of shelters?

The ‘deliveries’ part is where Christensen has driven up, stepped out and filled the gap for NeighbourLink clients during the past seven and a half years. Seven and a half hours is approximately how much time he spent volunteering each weekday, delivering food hampers in the mornings and baby needs in the afternoons.

“Oh, I’ve got memories!” says Christensen as he recounts some of his experiences on the doorsteps of low-income Calgarians’ homes and lives...Read more on the front page of the May edition of City Light News!