An unfortgettable radio remote
October 17, 2005
By Cam Tait
Bruce Bowie is very familiar with being awake at 4 a.m. He's been a radio morning man in Edmonton and Calgary for the past two decades. By 4 a.m. he's usually on his way to work, or sometimes there already. But things were very different one morning recently. He was sleeping in a cardboard box next to a dumpster in the inner city of Edmonton when he was awakened by the mighty roar of a diesel motor. A garbage truck backed up to take the waste from the garbage in the dumpster, just feet away from him.
Once awake, with very little money in his pocket, Bruce started walking the alleys and streets in the darkness. He admits he was scared; sunlight was still a few hours away.
Bruce says he has always had a soft spot for people who are homeless. Hope Mission, an inner city nonprofit, asked Bruce and his station, CISN-FM, if they would organize a fundraising event. Autumn winds were gusting and the cupboards were bare. The funds would help pay the $40,000 grocery bill for the mission's annual Thanksgiving dinner. A few ideas started floating around, including hanging Bruce from a crane for three days.
Then, CISN program director Chris Sheetz had an idea: let Bruce roam to streets for three days. With no money.
"I was dropped off after my show and just started walking around," says Bruce. "I started picking bottles out of dumpsters and realized that picking bottles was work in itself. You have to go into dumpsters and go through garbage to find them.
There's community within a community. It's interesting how bottle pickers look down on panhandlers. There's work to pick bottles and not that much work to panhandle."
At the end of the day, Bruce took his bottles in to be cashed. He had enough for dinner - $7.60 at McDonald's. As night settled in, someone suggested he use a cardboard box to sleep in because it would keep him warm. But all the warmth in the world still couldn't fend off the fear of the garbage truck waking Bruce.
"I waited for the first store to open where I could buy a cup of coffee. I only had $1.32 and the smallest coffee was $1.40. I was eight cents short...and I was cold. I found out what it felt like to not have enough money for something so many of us take for granted."
On his second night, Bruce slept in the shelter of Hope Mission. "I felt like I had a bed at the Hilton Hotel," he says. "What a difference."
Throughout the three days Bruce called back to the radio station regularly. "The station rearranged their programming for me." And the telephones started to ring. Listeners surpassed the $40,000 target. By late last week, $110,937 had been raised. "It paid for the turkey dinner and will pay for the heating bills this winter," says Bruce.
"These are not just bums on the street who don't want to work. I met a man who was going to get married at 2 p.m. He waited and waited for his new bride. The police showed up at the church at 2:30 p.m. with terrible news - his bride and his future mother-in-law were killed in a car accident on the way to the wedding. This guy started drinking and hasn't been able to get off the street since."
When Bruce returned to his home, he said he felt out of place and really didn't belong in a house. "I just keep thinking of the people I met and I hope they simply have hope."
Cam Tait is a sports reporter and columnist for the Edmonton Journal. He covered community investments and volunteers for 19 years. E-mail Cam at cam@charityvillage.com with thoughts, suggestions or ideas.
Opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CharityVillage.com®.
