I posted a little bit about the day over at the Centre’s weblog but I thought I would post some more thoughts here.
Each summer the Centre puts on a big barbecue at Riverbend Institution. Last year I was asked to go along and four of us headed up north to Prince Albert to cook and meet some of the guys who are at Riverbend. For many of the guys who are there, they are on their way out of the federal prison system and Riverbend is one of their last stops until they get to a federal half way house. In addition to this, some guys don’t do that great in a halfway house and are sent back and we have a chance to catch up with them.
Last year I took some photos. They were cool with it as I wasn’t taking photos of the guys there, just us setting up. Below is a photo of the four of us smoking out all of Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
This year they had us in a different location and there were always guys around helping so I never took any photos out of respect for the rules and the guys there (and let’s be honest, I was in the middle of a federal prison and I wanted to get out at the end of the night) but we had a lot of fun and yes there was a lot of smoke this year as well.
According to our two host chaplains, we had 130 guys come to the barbecue. About 20 of them were early enough to help us set up and over 50 of them swarmed around and helped clean up. While it was a lot of work to put on, I was told to take a seat in one of the adirondack chairs while clean up was going on.
While last year was a lot of fun, this year I was a little more comfortable with the guys which made it a more enjoyable event for me personally. Several of the guys came up and told me how much they appreciated the chaplaincy of the Major and several guys passed on greetings to the staff back at the Centre and even greetings for Wendy and Oliver. While they may be frustrated at themselves, their Parole Officers, and the system, they still like us and it is good to hear stories of them getting back on track.
It was a nice trip and I look forward to coming back next year.
