Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac CD morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start this episode off the same way we start every episode off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. And the fact that you spend with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 She caught me, loves near listen to the next city morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:29 All right. And we're back. Okay. I'm excited about today's guests because we've never met each other before. So it's a stranger to me. And I think everybody at home knows that's my favorite type of guest. So on that note, I'm going to let her introduce herself cause uh, I let my guests do that because they can do a better job at that than myself. So can you please tell everybody at home?
Speaker 3 00:00:47 Uh, my name is Shelley Toronto. I am the founding director of a safe Haven for adolescent mothers. I am also a realtor and mortgage broker here in Fort McMurray. I'm a born and raised resident of this community and take pride in where I live and I love it here. So
Speaker 0 00:01:02 Yeah, there we go. So let's hear about this organization that you founded. What's it all about?
Speaker 3 00:01:06 It's a safe Haven for adolescent mothers, uh, was born in 2013. And I say born because it was when my niece, who I raised as my own found herself in an unplanned pregnancy situation. And two days prior to her scheduled abortion, confidentiality was broken and I was told about her pregnancy. So I provided her with some adoptions and options. I went through all the, um, options for pregnancy pregnancy options, and we talked about what she should do and what she wanted to do. And of course she made her own decision. And so I thought, well, there's probably a lot of other young moms, unexpected, uh, mothers. My, my, my daughter, I called my daughter, she, my niece, but to my daughter, she was, uh, 15 at the time. So no, I, I figured that there's probably a lot of other young moms and or people in situations where they need some support and how is it that I can help them out.
Speaker 3 00:02:05 And Ash fam was a vision that was placed on my heart. And so I just pushed forth with it. And in 2017, we started handing out necessity hampers to young moms in the community that our first assessment hamper was delivered in December of 2017. Okay. So it's a, it's a fabulous organization. And that that's one part of what we do is provide material to supports, to young moms in the community and single dads and families that are in distress that needs some diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, uh, the list goes on how they wash, you know, you name it and everything that we have is donated by residents of this community. So the, what we have in our necessity shop varies from month to month because it's dependent on what we get in the community. So,
Speaker 0 00:02:56 Okay. So you just kind of answered some of my questions, but I'm going to ask just for clarification for myself, the hampers are primarily like supplies. If you have a child, it sounds like
Speaker 3 00:03:07 Correct. And, and more, I mean, if you have more than one child has not just for one child is for the family too, because we do get donations for men's clothing and children's clothing and maternity clothing. So yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:21 So if I am a young adult let, cause you said, um, fathers and sons or fathers and daughters, uh, or mother, sorry, how do you get ahold of you guys? Is this something that somebody would refer you to, or would you call it?
Speaker 3 00:03:36 You can refer somebody who you think is in need by calling as Ash FAMs office at 7 8 0 7 4 7 4 6 6 5, or you can send us an
[email protected] and, or you can give our information to, um, the individual that's in need and they can come and see us.
Speaker 0 00:03:57 Do you like if you've been in place for quite a few years now, um, how are you finding it? Do people reach out to you? How have you, how have you felt
Speaker 3 00:04:04 Variety of ways, which I try and bring awareness to the community. We have a booth in the mall where we're doing some fundraising, we're selling some raffle tickets. So people are aware of us there. I was on a one or 3.7 for awhile, fairness to the community, but mainly it's social media, Facebook and word of mouth, how, uh, we are, uh, found out about. Yeah, so that, and the necessity shop is just one part of what we do. Uh, we also, through our pregnancy resource center provide free pregnancy tests to young moms who think they might be pregnant and also provide our client support. Volunteers actually will sit with any pregnant mother who seeks out our assistance. Of course, they come to us and we provide factual information on all three, all three pregnancy options. So adoption, abortion, and, uh, also parenting. So we pride them with providing them with that factual information. So they're able to make a informed decision. And we always, always, I have to reiterate to everybody at ashram, Ash always respect the woman's right to make her own pregnancy decisions. And, and should they follow through by their own merit with an abortion, we still provide emotional support for post-abortion okay. At our organization tests. So we always let everybody know that we're not licensed counselors. We are client support volunteers to provide just emotional support and some, um, a shoulder. Yeah. For those who seek out our assistance,
Speaker 0 00:05:36 It's definitely an emotional thing to go through for sure. No doubt. Having a child is not easy. No.
Speaker 3 00:05:44 And it's a wonderful thing to have the supports to what you need and know that you can come see us. They can come see us every 30 days for all the necessities that,
Speaker 0 00:05:54 So do you guys have a physical location in town? Are you guys like go to people's houses to,
Speaker 3 00:05:58 To help note? We are a physical location on Manning avenue, 9, 9 0 8 Manning avenue, right across the street from city center carwash. And there's a big sign that you can't miss. Um, and uh, currently, like I said, we provide the necessities shop support, the material supports store necessity, shop the emotional supports through our pregnancy resource center. We do have capability to have young moms residing in our facility. We have five rooms actually that we can actually have young moms, uh, to live in a loving, nurturing home. It would not be used as emergency shelter per se. It's a place for a young mom to actually reside and have a loving, nurturing home and a place to learn the life skills that they need to raise their children. In addition to that, if a young mom, uh, it wants to carry her baby to term, but give it up for adoption.
Speaker 3 00:06:52 It would be a healthy place for them to carry their child to term that is not operating as of yet, because we don't have the finances to the majority of everything else that happens at our facility is all volunteer. So it's, everything is volunteer based. We don't have any paid positions within the organization because the money we have, uh, doesn't allow that's right, right now, the money that we receive, we are not government funded. And we have individuals that provide us with monthly donations and we have some local businesses that provide us with support and other organizations that to provide us with monthly support, just to continue operating where we are at this, but that interim housing we've actually had 17 young moms, uh, since our 11 young moms, pardon me since 2017, wow. Ask for a place to reside and we've had to turn them all away because we don't have the funding and the, the roles in that part of what we would do, I have to be paid there's no, there's no volunteer there. You have to be paid. There's a lot of criteria and guidelines that need to be followed in order to get that part of our operation up and running. But yeah, we were, we've been looking for some corporate sponsors and people that want to help us out to get that piece of what we do up and running, but we just haven't been able to find them at this point.
Speaker 0 00:08:14 So you kind of just dovetailed into my next question. If somebody did want to support you, maybe be like you said, a corporate sponsor or potentially individuals, like how do they get in contact? How do they end up giving you guys donations? Or like, how does that?
Speaker 3 00:08:27 So with our, we are a registered charity with government of Canada. So tax deductible receipts, receipts can be provided for anybody who provides a donation over $20. Um, they can do the donation
[email protected], or they can come down to the facility. Uh, we are open Monday, Tuesday, nine to one, and then Thursday, Friday nine to one as well. So they pop in and they can fill out the monthly donation form if they would like, or just provide a one-time donation. However they would like to do that. They just got to reach out and get in touch with us and well, we'll make it happen.
Speaker 0 00:09:07 So very cool. So this service, obviously you have a physical occasion, Fort McMurray, you guys are online, you have a phone number, so pretty easily accessible. Um, do you find you get a clientele from like the outlining, um, area? Not just for me.
Speaker 3 00:09:21 Oh yes. We've we've provided services to, um, all the outlying areas, Fort Macai, John Gay Conklin. Now we're actually working with one of another organizations here in Fort Macquarie, the hub to try and make it so that we actually can provide some mobile services, get them out of underlying areas, other outlying areas, I should say Fort McMurray. So,
Speaker 0 00:09:46 Yeah. Cool. All right. We'll
Speaker 3 00:09:48 Tell, I don't want anybody to be left with.
Speaker 0 00:09:50 There you go. Wide. Reach nothing wrong with that. All right. Well, Tyler, just a signal me that he is ready for his segment called the max CD minute. He's going to ask you some questions. I have no idea what they are. I wish you nothing but the best of luck tacky. It'll go to Maxine a minute.
Speaker 4 00:10:05 Uh, Alrighty. Question number one. What is your favorite part of helping young families within the community?
Speaker 3 00:10:12 The looks on their faces and the happiness. It brings to them knowing that they've got supports here in Fort McMurray.
Speaker 4 00:10:20 Question number two. What is one way helping these young families is affected you positively?
Speaker 3 00:10:27 It just warms my heart more is my heart. I'm, I'm happy. I'm happy, happy, happy doing what I do. And I'm very passionate about making sure everybody has what they need.
Speaker 4 00:10:36 Question number three, what is one service you provide that would surprise people?
Speaker 3 00:10:45 Uh, one service that we provide? Well, the, I guess the interim housing is not up for re operating yet, but that would be one that people probably don't know. We, we provide
Speaker 4 00:10:54 Question number four. What is one way for McMurray inspired you to run your own business?
Speaker 3 00:11:02 Uh, just Fort McMurray has got so much opportunity. I, so I don't, it just makes me want to do what I want to do. There's just so much opportunity here.
Speaker 4 00:11:12 And your final question. What is one aspect of your career that you find most rewarding?
Speaker 3 00:11:18 My career? So my career at ashram or my career as a mortgage broker and realtor, that's the question,
Speaker 4 00:11:26 I
Speaker 3 00:11:26 Guess, for both, just both of them is just, I really get satisfaction out of helping other people. So, you know, at ashram, all these young moms and their families are, are being helped. And as a realtor and a mortgage broker, I get satisfaction in helping people find their home and securing
Speaker 4 00:11:43 Their mortgage.
Speaker 0 00:11:46 I don't know you killed it with those questions, especially that last one. Cause that was where I wanted to segue the conversation is, um, real estate. So how long have you been doing that?
Speaker 3 00:11:56 Uh, I've been in the real estate industry for 10 plus years. I would, I'm a born and raised resident here in this community, as I mentioned. And I got self-employed. I want it to become self-employed to be able to have my own schedule and do all those things that entrepreneurs do, but I've got such, um, more out of it than what I ever, I just paid it. Cause I just love first time home buyers getting the keys to their new home, the biggest investment of their life and, and then other buyers moving from, uh, upgrading or downsizing, you know, their, their life changes. And so just, um, getting them into the home of their dreams is makes me very happy. And I love what I do there. That that's my absolute career. I'm on God's payroll at man.
Speaker 0 00:12:39 Ah, that's also, so we haven't had a real estate agent on a bit, actually. So how's the market going right now?
Speaker 3 00:12:46 Right now the market is still a, a buyer's market. So the prices are still coming down a little bit, but it's, it's busy out there. I mean, properties are moving. Properties are selling the prices still. Aren't where I'm sure a lot of sellers would like to see them. And there are individuals that are still underwater, which means they owe more to the bank than what their property would actually sell for in the current market. But things are happening and there's still a lot going on in real estate. And if anybody wants a current market analysis to see what their homes valued at, give me a call
Speaker 0 00:13:18 And where can they
Speaker 3 00:13:19 Find you? They can find me at 7 8 0 5 3 1 3 7 6 9 go.
Speaker 0 00:13:25 So you mentioned something before we started to film, uh, you're born and raised here in Fort Macquarie, like myself and Tanner.
Speaker 3 00:13:31 Okay. Been here for a long, long time. I don't want to give my age away.
Speaker 0 00:13:35 That's okay. We would never put you on the spot there, but I do have a question. We ask all local residences. What high school did you attend?
Speaker 3 00:13:42 Um, actually I did not attend high school. I didn't attend high school here because my parents separated. And so I ended up taking off to red deer for a brief
Speaker 0 00:13:52 For that period. Okay. Well then you can't, uh, settle the argument on Merck or comp for,
Speaker 3 00:13:58 Well, I would say Merck because that's where all of my children went
Speaker 0 00:14:03 Upper school. There we go. Sorry, Jenner. We can't all be perfect. So you've been in the community for quite some time. What are some changes that you've seen that you really like over the years?
Speaker 3 00:14:15 Oh my gosh. There are so many wonderful changes. There are some changes that I can say that I don't like. Like they took my siding hill away, Confederation away when I was a kid, we used to ride on down that
Speaker 3 00:14:30 Big, long toboggan crazy. And it was so much fun and they took that away. Uh, you know, the growth is obviously what the community needs to stay and thrive. I mean, so I understand that it's gone, but yeah, it's not that sad. The growth that I really like is Mac island look at what Mac island now and shell place. We've never had those, those venues where we're able to bring in a bunch of entertainment and that sort of thing. So that's, that's a great blessing. There's, there's a lot of changes that are positive and there are also some better negative. And you just got to go roll with the punches punches, go, go with the way things are and, and be, um, like I said, I'm, I take pride in where I live and just be happy what you're doing in the community. So,
Speaker 0 00:15:14 So you said you had some, you said children that's plural. How many, how many kids you got?
Speaker 3 00:15:18 Uh, well, my husband and I I've raised four children together. Um, and they, we have 16 grandchildren,
Speaker 0 00:15:25 16 grandchildren. Wow. You're so
Speaker 3 00:15:32 Blessed. Am I counting properly? Maybe I'm counting a little bit. Maybe I'm off. We got 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 grandchildren.
Speaker 0 00:15:41 13. Okay. There's four
Speaker 3 00:15:43 Children. That's that's correct.
Speaker 0 00:15:46 Wow. So we just came out of the holiday season. You must've just had the best holidays,
Speaker 3 00:15:52 Actually. It was very quiet just because COVID and things like that. We, we actually had a very quiet Christmas by herself. Oh, wow. Yeah. All alone. And we delivered Christmas presents of course, but it didn't have the whole family in one place. It was very, very quiet. It was very different Christmas, but it was nice. Nice.
Speaker 0 00:16:13 Wow. 13. Yeah. So holy that is cool. That's not bad at all.
Speaker 3 00:16:22 It's good. I love, I love the kids. I love family. I love having everybody together. I love noise. My husband sometimes runs away from it in the bedroom.
Speaker 0 00:16:33 Wow. Well between that and like your volunteering and your job, you must be just ran off your feet.
Speaker 3 00:16:41 I'm very, very busy, but I love it. I love being busy, you know, with all of these, stay at home owners the last couple years, it hasn't been that busy because your ashram is by appointment only kind of thing. Not now, but at the time it was by appointment only couldn't do open houses. You can do a lot of those things. Showings are restricted to two people at a time. There was a lot of different rules. So the last couple of years has been very quiet. And I actually miss the times when it was hopping and crazy busy and I was getting up at five 30 in the morning and go until 10 o'clock at night, you're just running around doing all these different things. Um, but COVID is certainly, uh, pulled people. I'm sure. Not only myself out of their routines. I don't, I don't get up at five 30 anymore.
Speaker 0 00:17:30 No. What are you going to do? That's right. That's right. Okay, cool. Well, listen, we've come to the end of the show. Well, thanks. You're swimming. No problem. Fantastic. But before we cut you loose, everybody gets a shameless shout out or plug. You got a lot of things that you could shout out or plug. So you got the cameras, the mix, the lights are fun.
Speaker 3 00:17:50 I don't know what to say here. I just want to, I want to tell the people, the community, um, young moms that needs support that we are here at ashram. That's the biggest thing. We are here at ashram to support you and help you out in any way that you need. And of course all you people out there that are looking to buy or sell or finance. Give me a shout. I'm here to help you with that.
Speaker 0 00:18:09 There we go. And all that can be found online. Social media, you got phone numbers, you have emails,
Speaker 3 00:18:14 Toronto, Google, Shelly Trasho, and you'll find
Speaker 0 00:18:16 Me. Awesome. Well, listen, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you for having me anytime you want to come back. Awesome. Just reach out. We'll have you back on. Cause you got a lot to talk about. Okay. Well thank you very much. No worries. Fort MacMurray, wood, Buffalo, the rest of the world. That's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you so much for tuning in. It does mean the world to me. I hope you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 5 00:18:41 This is another Mac Sydney morning show dog.
Speaker 6 00:18:57 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
