I grew up in a military household. My father was in the Air Force, which, much to his dismay became the Armed Forces with all three elements united under one banner. “If God had wanted the Army to fly, they would have painted the sky brown,” he liked to grumble. But then, my father liked to grumble. It was his way. Nothing vicious. But he did hold a lot of opinions about a lot of things — and always, he fought for the underdog, the disenfranchised, the suffering. It was his way.

This Christmas, I am honouring my father with Christmas at the Madison.

The Madison is an apartment building here in the city that provides housing for 15 formerly homeless veterans. Owned by the Calgary Homeless Foundation and operated by AlphaHouse, The Madison is a safe haven for those vets who have lost their way and are searching for direction, a way off the street, a way back to pride, dignity, independence. At The Madison, they’ve found it.

The plan is to create Christmas on December 25th. To prepare the Christmas meal with all the fixins’, to have gifts for each of the tenants under the tree, which we will decorate next week and to put the dinner on the table in the afternoon of Christmas day in the Common Room at The Madison.

I am blessed. I have friends who have stepped forward to help organize the dinner, a stranger, a woman I met when I was giving a course but didn’t really get a chance to talk to, who called after a friend told her about the event, What can I do?  Thank you Agnes.

At dinner with a friend one evening last week, after telling them about the event, asked, “What’s it going to cost?”

“I’ve calculated $1500, with the food, the gifts, and everything else we may need to get.”  They wrote a cheque.

I am so blessed.

The goal is to match that amount to ensure there are extra funds in The Madison operating budget.

Which is why, this upcoming Monday night, I’m organizing a concert here in Calgary for Christmas at The Madison.

I’m excited.

C.C.’s son, Taylor Cochrane, an amazing and gift musician is playing as is one of his band members, Luke Bowman. After dinner at our house a couple of weeks ago, Luke blew us away with his piano compositions and playing.

And… my daughter Alexis is singing too.

I am so excited!

Alexis and her boyfriend James, who plays a mean guitar, will be entertaining us with three songs.

And my friend Michelle Warkentin stepped up to say she’s willing to bring along “Granny” one of her puppets.

And I’m still looking for a couple of other performers. So if you’re in Calgary, and want a gig at a benefit concert on Monday night (which means you are contributing your talent, time and treasures for the joy of contributing your talent, time and treasures 🙂 ) then please — let me know if you want to play or, if you know of a performer and they’re available and willing, please ask them to contact me! That would be awesome.

In the meantime, I’m pasting in one of Taylor’s recordings:  This is Where I Draw The Line.