After seven years as an auxiliary captain with the Salvation Army in Fort Frances, Arthur Heathcote will be leaving town to take up a new position as an ordained officer in Winnipeg this month.
Heathcote said he felt led by God to his service with the Army most recently in 2019, and Fort Frances has been a training location for him since then.
“I’d been brought up in the Salvation Army, and everything was going well and fine,” Heathcote told The Times. “I was playing piano at the church on Sunday, and I kind of felt that this is my calling at this point in time. But I’d been called when I was nine years old, and so in 2019 that calling came back, and I became an auxiliary captain.”
“I was a little too mature to go the residential route for training, but the [Salvation] Army felt that Fort Frances would be a good fit for me, so Fort Frances has been a training ground for the last seven years that I’ve been here. So not only have I been learning from just about everybody I’ve met here, but I’ve also been doing intensive training through the training college as well over that time.”
Heathcote will be ordained as a full officer in the Salvation Army at a ceremony in Toronto on Sunday.
“I’ll be commissioning and ordaining as a Salvation Army officer at that point in time, so it’s just the culmination of all of the training that’s come together, and to celebrate the calling to be recognized by the organization as an ordained minister,” he said.
“They’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on, so I’m going to be heading over to Winnipeg, and I’ll be a chaplain to a program there called Community Venture,” a day program for people with intellectual disabilities with several locations in Winnipeg.
“I get to be the chaplain to the clients, to their families and to the staff as well,” he said.
“So I’m really looking forward to something new. Although my time in Fort Frances can’t be underplayed, it’s been a really exceptional experience here.”
Heathcote has seen growth and development of the Salvation Army’s programs in Fort Frances since he arrived, especially in the area of the food bank.
“The first thing that struck me when I came to Fort Frances was that we needed some structure, especially for our food bank,” he said. “Because it was very clear, the writing was on the wall that things were going to intensify as the years went on.”
Things didn’t take long to intensify. Heathcote saw the local Salvation Army through the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after his arrival.
“I just started building some infrastructure then to be able to support what was coming down the road, and then all of a sudden COVID came along, and COVID was an open door for us, it gave us an opportunity to kick into high gear now, and, and during that time, we did home delivery for the food bank items, because no one was allowed out,” he said.
“So, we were doing home delivery, we were able to meet people on their turf, which was really helpful for relationship building.”
The organization also worked to support local service providers during the pandemic.
“At the same time, we also supported the businesses that had to continue running throughout that time, people like social workers showing up every day at work, and the firefighters and the police, and all that. So we decided that every week we would pick a different social service agency and provide lunch for them.”
“It was a way of supporting the work that they were doing as well. People say, ‘You’re the Salvation Army, you’re supposed to be helping people in need.’ But we all need support, and during COVID, it was an extremely stressful time for a lot of people. So just being able to knock on the door, offer some people lunch, have a great conversation was a wonderful way, because usually when the Salvation Army shows up, we’re looking for money or somebody else is in a crisis,” Heathcote said.
Dealing with COVID also opened the door for the Army to build solid partnerships and relationships in town, which is what holds “the whole thing together,” Heathcote said.
“The Salvation Army isn’t a one-band shop. We work with so many different agencies within the town to make sure that needs are being met.”
The Salvation also changed locations over the course of Heathcote’s tenure, moving from 353 Scott St. to 242 Scott St.
“We were across from the bargain shop when I first arrived here, and then it came to the point where we had to leave that building and find something else. Fortunately, 242 Scott Street became available in the 11th hour, and it’s met our needs to be able to continue providing service for the people in Fort Frances.
In 2023, Heathcote was also able to secure funding to enable the foodbank to install a freezer in the basement, enabling it to better support the community with less shelf-stable foods.
Over the course of his years in the area, Heathcote has also had the opportunity to work with different community organizations.
“Christmastime is when those relationships get to be built, everything from the Muskies supporting us during the parade and we’re supporting them as well, and then them coming out and looking after kettles throughout that time. We’ve had both the Muskie boys, the Muskie girls, and we’ve also had the Lakers who kicked off our Kettle Campaign last year.”
In an emailed statement, Mayor Andrew Hallikas praised Heathcote for his work in the community.
“The Salvation Army, under the leadership of Arthur Heathcote, has contributed immeasurably to the betterment of Fort Frances,” the mayor wrote.
“Arthur is always found where he is needed, whether raising funds so that families can have a warm Christmas, finding funding for a gigantic walk-in freezer so that the Salvation Army can handle bulk donations of food, counselling those in need of a spiritual lift, attending and supporting walks, fundraisers and events of other organizations and much more,” Hallikas said.
“Arthur Heathcote, for his efforts, has left Fort Frances a much better place than he found it. He has set an example for all of us.”
His time in the Fort drawing to a close, there were tears in Heathcote’s eyes as he discussed what he’s been thinking about as he prepared to leave.
“The people that are here, there are some golden, golden people,” he said.
“I’ll miss the people. They’ve been a wonderful support for the work that we’ve done, and a tremendous amount of encouragement. You don’t know how many people not only write a cheque but also include a little note as well in that cheque, and it means the world, because sometimes it gets pretty heavy. When we see struggles, families that come in that are struggling and having a really hard time, you know, it’s wonderful to be able to help them, but the emotional toll as well. We’re all human. So, just the amount of words of encouragement that people have offered to me throughout this time has been the gas that’s kept the engine going.”
Heathcote encouraged the community to continue helping, despite potential perceived differences.
“It’s been amazing the way this community just comes together, especially when you say ‘help.’ People are there instantly,” he said.
“I mean, there are challenges within Fort Frances, and we can get bogged down with those, and sometimes they get focused on a little too much; we need to look at the other side of the coin. There’s a lot of really wonderful things happening here. There’s a lot of really wonderful people who are here, and it’s those people who keep the engine running.”
As Heathcote leaves, he’s happy to leave the food bank and the Community Family Services Department in the hands of co-ordinator Ryan Daw.
“He’s going to be looking after the Community Family Services department. He has been for the last couple of years,” Heathcote said.
“I’ve kind of stepped back because he’s fully capable of doing what needs to be done, and he has a real passion for people. He has a really unique gift of being able to connect with people, build relationships where they’ll divulge, you know, what’s going on in their lives, and we have so many different resources and networks that if we’re not able to meet your need, we know someone who can, so we’re able to facilitate those things.”
