Charlottetown, PEI: Alhamdulillah, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Prince Edward Island took part in a community fundraising barbecue in support of Lennon House, a recovery home serving Islanders working their way back from addiction and mental illness.
The spirit behind this initiative is the command of the Holy Prophet (sa), that the best of people are those who are most beneficial to others. Service to humanity is not a side activity of the Jama’at but a condition of faith, and it is not confined to Ahmadi Muslims alone. Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V (aba) has repeatedly instructed the Jama’at to look for the needs of the wider society and to meet them alongside neighbours of every background.
It was with these gems in mind that the Jama’at PEI contributed towards this event. The barbecue was staged in support of Shed the Stigma, a campaign built around the raffle of a fully wired outbuilding constructed and donated by a local builder, with materials contributed by island businesses.
Cooking was handled by the Kiwanis Club of Charlottetown and members of PEI Jama’at. Kiwanis handled all funding and related expenses so that the proceeds could go to Lennon House in full. Darren Creamer, a Kiwanian speaking for the Club, said Kiwanis had sponsored the recovery home in a modest way for years. Asked how a house for adults in recovery fitted an organisation whose stated purpose is serving the children of the world, he answered that most of the people Lennon House takes in are parents, and that helping a parent is often the only way to reach a child.
Lennon House opened in 2020 in the former Belcourt Centre in South Rustico, a building donated by the Diocese of Charlottetown. It is named for Lennon Waterman, who died in 2013 after a long struggle with addiction and mental illness, and whose mother, Dianne Young, founded the association in his memory.
Sandra MacNevin, the Executive Director, explained that the house accommodates 23 residents, men and women, at the stage after detox and treatment when most support falls away. Residents attend groups, work with a caseworker and look for appropriate housing. Between 65 and 80 percent of them arrive with no fixed address. MacNevin was direct about what this means in practice. It means that a person leaving detox cannot simply return to the community, because the place they left was not a place that would hold them and help them stay addiction free.
The organisation receives partial provincial funding, but a substantial portion of its operating budget, along with anything raised for capital projects, has to come from the community each year. Shed the Stigma is one of several efforts underway. An online auction is planned for Recovery Month in September, and a gala will follow in November at the Delta Hotel in Charlottetown.
An afternoon spent turning hamburgers beside a shed in Rustico is a small thing measured against what the residents of Lennon House are carrying. But it is the kind of small thing that builds the relationships from which larger service grows, Insha’Allah.
