#KawarthaLakes Mum Receiving Good Neighbour Award!

Downeyville Daughter Receiving Award Honour Work With Toronto Homeless!

Anne Marie Batten, Downeyville daughter of Joe O'Neill, credits her rural upbringing as the basis for the compassion she has for the Homeless and marginalized people she serves as a Street Nurse in Toronto. Anne Marie Batten's work has been cited in several articles in the Toronto Star, and the Invisible People Project, and she is a Featured Writer on the Omemee Pigeon eFlyer. Today Anne Marie Batten will be one of the recipients of a Good Neighbour Award in Toronto as cited in the following press release:

What: 5th Annual Day of the Homeless - Memorial Service
When:10:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Where:The Good Neighbours' Club Day Centre for older homeless men170 Jarvis Street at Shuter, Toronto
Who: Lieutenant Governor David C. Onley
Glen Murray, MPP, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2013 /CNW/ - Patron and Club champion

Lieutenant-Governor David C. Onley will pay tribute to homeless older men who died on the streets of Toronto last year.

Glen Murray, MPP, Minister of Transportation and homeless advocate will speak and Norm King of The Trillium Foundation will present a major cheque to further the work of the Good Neighbours' Club. Awards named in memory of Paul Croutch will go to Toronto Police Constable Susan Crawford of 51 Division, Street Health Nurse Anne-Marie Batten, TD CEO Mike Pedersen, and others.

The violent death of former newspaper editor and club member Paul Croutch at Moss Park Armoury, August 2005 shook Toronto, and was the catalyst for the Good Neighbours' Club, annual Day of the Homeless. Paul Croutch, and other members of the club who lived and died on our streets will be honoured in our Service of Remembrance. Tribute will also be paid to member William Buss who died alone last year, hidden behind trash, undiscovered for six weeks in an outdoor stairwell. The Club's Executive Director, Dr. A. Bruno Scorsone,reflecting 8 years after the senseless murder of Paul Croutch said, "A recent report from the City shows that more seniors than ever are living on the streets. Clearly something needs to change."

The day will also mark 80 years of service by the Good Neighbours' Club to our men on the streets, who look to us daily for a hand up, not a hand out.

The Good Neighbours' Club, a drop-in centre for homeless men, 50 and over, at 170 Jarvis Street near Moss Park, provides food, clothing, showers, laundry and basic health care to almost 400 men daily; 7 days a week, 365 days a year.