Nikki Glahn has been busy this week boxing up leftover items at the former Glowing Hearts Community Give and Get location on Bradford Street.
Glahn, who is the founder of the community Facebook page Barrie Families Unite, is now preparing to transition from running the grassroots community-support social-media page to taking over the charity founded by local philanthropist Frank Nelson in 2013.
Last week, the Glowing Hearts board voted unanimously to pass the charity's registration number and legal name over to the Barrie Families Unite team.
“What they were doing aligns with what we’re all about,” said Glahn. “Our team had already been talking about (the future) of Barrie Families Unite and how we could establish more of a permanent face in the community.
“It kind of felt like maybe the universe was listening,” said Glahn.
Glahn started the Barrie Families Unite Facebook page on March 14 with the intention of sharing positive information, recommendations and help between local families in the infancy of COVID-19.
“There are so many people in our community that live paycheck to paycheck. What were these people going to do? How were these people supposed to reach out for help when we were told not to get together?” asked Glahn. “I thought I could create a space to facilitate connectivity.”
Now, the Facebook page boasts more than 10,000 followers and Glahn said the community is always quick to jump in and help whenever a call goes out.
“It means the helpers can easily find the people who need the help. I feel it’s OK for a group to carve out space on social media for positivity. It exploded, but in a good way,” she said.
Over time, Glahn said the Facebook page has worked to fill in gaps in existing services, and she would like to continue with that goal. Some examples she lists from this past summer include a campaign to give free masks to families for back to school, as well as a campaign to get new and used air conditioning units to those in need.
Over the past few months, Glahn has collaborated with Glowing Hearts on a few endeavours that have been successful, which is why president Cindy Thompson said she decided to reach out to Glahn about the possibility of shifting the charity into Barrie Families Unite’s hands.
Glowing Hearts started when local philanthropist Frank Nelson was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013.
He wanted to help as many people as he could and created a bucket list to achieve his goals. Through sponsorships and donations, he helped get $1,000 to 43 families before his death in 2017.
The organization lived on and continued his pay-it-forward mentality with Thompson, Nelson’s daughter, at the helm.
“They were already doing a lot of campaigns that were like what my father had done. To me, it just made sense,” said Thompson. “I saw a lot of parallels between us and Barrie Families Unite.”
Thompson said she had been considering making a big change for herself and her family now that some years have passed since Nelson’s death, and with revenues declining and time waning, Thompson saw it as an opportunity to pass over the reins.
“At first, I found it comforting; my family lives in his house, and with running the charity, I had a piece of him all day, every day. Now, it’s getting to be overwhelming. It was time to start fresh,” she said.
“They’re already doing the things he would have wanted. He had spent the last year of his life building the foundation for Glowing Hearts, so I feel like a large piece of him is still moving on.”
Looking forward, Glahn is in the process of switching over the charity’s board. She’s also on the lookout for both storage and commercial space, volunteers and financial support. All donations to Glowing Hearts will be transferred over to the new charity.
“In order to become a sustainable presence in the city, we need ongoing support from businesses, families and politicians. So, there’s going to be a lot of research and work to determine what our path will be going forward,” said Glahn.
While no final decisions have yet been made on what the future of the charity will look like, Glahn’s vision will be to move the charity forward with more of an emphasis on virtual connections.
“I think it will be a fusion of what Glowing Hearts has done in the past and how Barrie Families Unite has utilized social media,” said Glahn.
To follow Barrie Families Unite on Facebook, click here.
