It is not easy, but community support is making a difference for McMullen Manor

Jeff Green | Feb 10, 2021

The Sydenham Legion Hall has hundreds of weddngs, funeral lunches, fundraising dances, political meetings and other gatherings during it storied history.

Due to COVID, the last year has been pretty quiet, and then the latest lockdown took effect, it seemed like it would be another few months before it would spring to life.

That was before McMullen Manor burnt down in January. As a remarkable community effort to support the former residents of the Manor, which was owned and managed by the Kingston and Frontenac Housing Corporation, a need arose for a convenient location to store donated furniture and household items.

The job of co-ordinating the effort to filter all the offers of items down to those that are needed by about 30 displaced people, and get them to those people where they are living now, fell mostly on the shoulders of Melissa Elliott, volunteer co-ordinator with Southern Frontenac Community Services.

“One of the first things that I realised was that I needed a place to keep all of the items, including furniture, until I could arrange to deliver it to the former residents. Luckily, the Legion stepped in quickly, and offered up this space. They said they are not using it now because of the pandemic and they wanted it to be used for a good cause,” she said.

Melissa has been working out of the Legion over the last couple of weeks, keeping up her co-ordination efforts for the agency while supervising a network of SFCS and other volunteers who have been pikcing up items from across South Frontenac to being to the Legion, and eventually delivering them to the new apartments where the former McMullen residents have landed.

“The Legion Hall is now set up like and old-time Woolworths store,” said Elliott.

Some of the people have been able to come in and pick their own furniture. Elliott has sent photos to others, and she has described what she has on hand to some of the other people, trying to match what people have donated with the needs and desires of the former McMullen residents.

“We really want to make sure that we match items with needs and tastes, where we can. They are all in a pretty vulnerable state.”

She mentioned one case where a loveseat was brought to one man’s apartment.

“He took it without saying anything because he was being gracious. But when I spoke with him the next day he said he didn’t think he would use it because, in his words, it was too ‘flamboyant” for him. So, we replaced with someone he would use.”

The number of volunteers involved in vetting all of the items (people need to phone first, Elliott determines if the items are what is needed. There are no direct drop offs) and delivering them has been massive.

“The amount of people who have stepped forward, from all corners of Frontenac County, and in Kingston through ‘Loving Hands’ is really amazing. All the Lions Clubs donated money. The Legion has been a huge support, everyone has gone above and beyond what could be expected,” she said.

A Verona resident herself, Elliott regularly walked her dog at McMullen Park and knew a number of the residents.

“I know a lot of them better now, and although most of them are settled in Kingston, they want to come back once McMullen Manor is rebuilt. I’m not sure about the details, but I’m told that Kingston Frontenac Housing will give them the option to return, even though it will be quite a while before a new building can be built.

Aside from providing for all of the basic needs people have, from clothing to furniture to bedding and kitchenware, people lost some of their treasured possessions when the Manor burnt down.

Timothy Hubbard was living upstairs from the apartment where the fire started.

He heard the alarm and started to look for his cat, but he was not that worried at first because there have been alarms in the past, usually from small fires that went out quickly.

“When somebody busted the door in the apartment below mine because smoke was coming out but no one answered the knocking, the wind rushed in and smoke and fire filled the building. I got out with only my coat. I never could find my cat, who burned up with the building.

Among the things that he lost was his stereo component system, and his treasured collection of vinyl records, cd’s, dvd’s and video-cassettes.

“My LP’s were in good condition. I took care of them. I kept them in plastic sleeves,” he said.

His musical tastes favour 1970’s vintage folk and rock. He had Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones records, a complete collection of Bruce Cockburn “I’ve seen him perform live 5 times, he said) and some more esoteric British bands, Fairport Convention, Steel Eye Span and Pentangle, along with a variety of country, rock and jazz recordings.

His taste in books and movies runs to westerns, and he had DVD’s of all the Sergio Leone ‘spaghetti westerns’ another Clint Eastwood, John Ford and John Wayne movies.

Timothy’s middle name is William and he said that there are 7 letters in each of his names, “which brings me good or bad luck, depending on the day”.

He has been staying with his mother, who is 94, while an apartment in Kingston is being prepared for him to move in next week. His late father had a turntable that Timothy bought for him year’s ago and he might bring it with him, but he is not sure if he shouldn’t go over to the digital side of things instead of trying to set up a stereo and try to build a new collection.

“My friend said I can just tell hi what music I had or what I want and he will get it all for me and put it on a thumb drive, but then I would need a computer and I have never been interested in any of that stuff before, so I don’t know what I should do,” he said.

AS for moving back to Verona, he is not sure he will want to.

“I loved living there. I lived there for 9 years, after moving from outside of Apsley, and I love the country living, but I’m not sure I want to go back to that spot after the fire. It will be a coupe of years anyway so I can decide then, but I’m not sure. I have some bad memories. One minute I was watching tv and the next minute I was fleeing. AS soon as I got outside, I could see the fire climbing the walls. Everything went up, everything any of us had was gone, just like that.”