Musical equipment donated to McMan’s Inn Between Youth Shelter

By Jeremy Appel on August 22, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

The World Organization for Mental Power donated on Tuesday three guitars — one acoustic and two electric — an amplifier, a ukelele and some sheet music to the McMan’s Inn Between Youth Shelter.

WOMP is a Medicine Hat-based non-profit working to promote mental health and suicide awareness.

Kaitlin Whitney, WOMP’s social media manager, says the group was formed after a friend Dylan committed suicide.

Dylan was a musician, so they decided it would be appropriate to donate musical instruments to a local shelter for at-risk youth.

“For many people, music is a way to cope and it’s therapeutic,” said Whitney.

“We decided that the struggling youth in the shelter might need this the most, so if there’s any young, aspiring musicians there, it might help them through whatever it is that they’re going through.”

She said they decided to donate to McMan in particular, since one of their board members works with them.

“There’s stuff to do in the youth shelter, but there’s not a whole lot, and there’s a lot of musically-talented kids that come through there,” said Whitney.

WOMP held a silent auction to fundraise for its musical donation.

“We bought all brand new, out-of-the-box guitars and amps, and all that stuff,” she said.

When donating the instruments and sheet music, Whitney said they were able to meet the staff and tour the building, but were unable to meet any of the residents due to confidentiality issues.

“We got to meet all the staff members and it was a very positive experience,” she said.

14
-13

Comments are closed.