In the NEWS and EVENTS

General Meeting and Downtown Tour

December 8, 2007

The Red Deer Guardian Angel's are off to a great start. With support from members of the Red Deer City Council and the Red Deer RCMP, this non profit organization is set to grow over the next several months while training starts in January for patrol beginning in early spring. Reporters, news personal, and photographers were all on hand to positively record the debut of Alberta's newest red beret wearing organization.

There was an impressive display of support for the Red Deer group as members from both Edmonton and Calgary visited Saturday, December 8th, to perform a publicity tour of downtown. It was great to see and hear the support of fellow Red Deer residents as they tooted horns and shouted approval. The groups met quite a number of the residents who are regularly in the downtown area and everyone was more then supportive of what the Guardian Angels mission is - to better the city and provide a safer environment for it's residents.

The Guardian Angels is a group of regular citizens that want to take a step to improve life for many in the various regions of the city. The group doesn't require any taxpayers money and raises funds as a not for profit organization where any funds raised goes back into the community through the various outreach programs they are involved in with street residents, schools and students.

Please visit our Gallery page for more images from the day's activities.

Photos above, left: meeting with media from local newspapers, right: one group of Guardian Angels touring the Ross Street area near Red Deer City Hall.

Red Deer Advocate - Street patrol welcomed

December 10, 2007

By Lana Michelin, Advocate staff

The sight of red berets in downtown Red Deer was welcomed by residents and business owners on Saturday.

“I love it.” The Guardian Angels “have my full support,” said Candace Dunning, owner of Hot Pot Studio and Bistro on Gaetz, who believes the citizens patrol group will improve the downtown’s image.

Shawna Juba, owner of 180 Degree Clothing, said she’s had to close her store earlier on Thursday and Friday nights because customers are wary about being downtown after dark.

“I think this will make people feel safer,” said Juba.

Nameer Ramzan, who owns Off the Hook clothing, also gave the thumbs up to Guardian Angel patrols.

Seedy looking people often hang around the entrance of his store, said Ramzan. “They scare the customers.”

Sylvan Lake resident Randy Tweten was among seven local volunteers for the Guardian Angels who briskly walked through the downtown on frosty Saturday afternoon — along with red-uniformed Angels from Edmonton and Calgary.

“I’m doing it because our community needs it,” said Tweten, who works in Red Deer and intends to go through the martial arts, CPR and legal training required to become an Angel. “There’s lots of vandalism, drugs, lots of downtown problems. . . . We need to take control of our town.”

Tweten, who can’t yet don the red uniform, said the Red Deer Guardian Angels chapter will officially start up when local training is completed in the spring.

Dave Schroeder, a Guardian Angel from Edmonton, said the patrol group is needed because police can’t be everywhere. Edmonton and Calgary started up Guardian Angels chapters earlier this year.

Schroeder said group members learn about which situations to get involved in and when not to take a risk. “In 28 years, a Guardian Angel has never been convicted, criminally or civilly.”

Tweten’s wife, Alaynne West, also plans to go through the program and she hopes more local volunteers step forward. Four to six people are ideally needed to conduct each street patrol because there’s safety in numbers.

West believes having more eyes downtown will benefit everyone. “Many times I’ve been approached by (strangers) wanting money,” she said, adding the possibility of robbery is unnerving.

West has even walked downtown with her children and felt unsafe.

Among the other local residents interested in becoming Guardian Angels is mechanic Brad Warner. He also helps out at the Potter’s Hands soup kitchen, but sees no conflict.

While some homeless people at Potter’s Hands seemed nervous when Warner revealed he wants to become a Guardian Angel, he told them he would be protecting the street population against crime the same as anyone else. “I am serving the community.”

Red Deer-based magazine editor David Reimche said he once saw a Guardian Angel jump a subway turnstile in pursuit of a criminal during a trip to Montreal, and was impressed.

Reimche now wants to better this community by keeping an eye out for back alley drug deals when he becomes a Guardian Angel.

Sharon Fisher, owner of Delicates Bra Boutique who was severely beaten by a robber few years ago, was ready to applaud the appearance of the Angels on Ross Street.

“I’m extremely pleased they are going to be here. I can’t say enough good things about the volunteers who are doing this,” said Fisher.

Neither can Kaleen Kumar. The city resident lives downtown and has to make her way past a crowd of loiterers every day who seem intimidating.

“I think it’s a good thing they are cleaning up the streets,” she said.

Her partner Phillip Clark said he sometimes walks all the way to Kumar’s workplace in Riverside Meadows just so he can accompany her home, past the loiterers. “Sometimes there are 20 or 30 guys. It can be scary.”

Contact Lana Michelin at lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

Calgary Sun - Angels in training

December 10, 2007

By CP

RED DEER -- Business owners in central Alberta say they welcomed an appearance by the Guardian Angels in their community.

Several members of the citizens' patrol group from Edmonton and Calgary wore their familiar red berets and joined seven would-be volunteers for a tour of downtown Red Deer on Saturday.

Randy Tweten says he wants to join the group because there are problems with vandalism and drugs in Red Deer.

Tweten says the Red Deer Guardian Angels chapter will officially start up when local training is completed in the spring.

Tweten's wife, Alaynne West, also plans to go through the program and hopes more local volunteers step forward.

Sharon Fisher, a business owner who was severely beaten by a robber few years ago, applauded the appearance of the Angels.

"I'm extremely pleased they are going to be here. I can't say enough good things about the volunteers who are doing this," said Fisher.

December 9, 2007

The desire to see a safer downtown in Red Deer has led members of the community to start up a chapter of the Guardian Angels. The crime fighting organization made the downtown patrol Saturday with close to 20 people taking part. Red Deer spokesperson Alaynne West says they've had great support from the city, RCMP and community and are looking for more volunteers: the patrol was followed by a public meeting in the old court house.

December 8, 2007

Efforts to set up a chapter of the Guardian Angels in Red Deer are going full steam ahead.

Organizer Alaynne West says the group is having a downtown patrol over the weekend with members from the Edmonton and Calgary chapters.

The Patrol begins at 12:30 PM, followed by a public meeting at Universal Mortgage Solutions in the Old Court House at 2:30.

For more information visit www.guardianangels.com, or pick up an application at Universal Mortgage Solutions.

by Johnnie Bachusky - Red Deer Express

Edmonton and Calgary Guardian Angels members will be in Red Deer next month to conduct a first patrol in the city.

The group hopes to recruit new Red Deer members before holding an information meeting.

“We will show them how to patrol, the walking formation,” said Dan Marsh, a recruiter and patroller for the Edmonton Guardian Angels chapter.

“We want to show them (recruits) how we do it and to generate interest.”

The Guardian Angels is a non-profit, international volunteer organization of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. Founded in 1979, the Guardian Angels now have 80 chapters in nine countries around the world.

Marsh said if recruits can be attracted in sufficient numbers the Red Deer chapter would be officially launched some time in the spring of 2008. Marsh said new Guardian Angels members go through a three-month training period that includes martial arts instruction, learning a standard First Aid course and Criminal Code instruction.

Representatives from the Guardian Angels have already met city officials and Red Deer city RCMP Supt. Brian Simpson.

Marsh said the feedback members have received from Red Deer has been positive.

“So far, yes. It has been mostly positive and really supportive,” said Marsh.

Simpson agreed the meeting he had with group representatives from Calgary and Edmonton went well, adding he believes the group is sincere in its intentions of making Red Deer a safer city.

“If any group works towards crime prevention they are welcome here, whether it be the Guardian Angels or anybody else,” said Simpson. “I’m satisfied their intentions are right.”

Meanwhile, city Councillor Buck Buchanan, a retired RCMP police officer, said he believes the concept of having the Guardian Angels in the city is “great” but he also wants questions answered by the group before it is welcomed in the city.

“There are a lot of logistical questions that have to be answered, like its pre-screening and selection process. Are they going to bring in some test or polygraph?,” said Buchanan.

He said he also wants to know more about the Guardian Angels training program, as well as the group’s start-up costs for Red Deer and who will be picking up the bill.

Marsh said he did not know all the details yet of the potential chapter in Red Deer but did say a local martial arts instructor and lawyer would be involved in the training process.

For more information on the Guardian Angels visit the Edmonton chapter web site: www.edmontonguardianangels.com

jbachusky@reddeer.greatwest.ca

Red Deer Advocate - Patrol Planned in Red Deer

November 14, 2007

By Brenda Kossowan  - Advocate staff

Guardian Angels from Calgary and Edmonton are planning a street patrol in Red Deer within the next few weeks.

Although a date for the meeting has not been set, the plan is to bring members from existing chapters to Red Deer for a street patrol on the same night, said David Schroeder, leader of the Edmonton chapter.

Schroeder was last in Red Deer on Sept. 8 for a public meeting, organized by local people interested in getting a new chapter going. There has been no formal activity since then, but the Red Deer group has been drumming up support for the plan, said Schroeder.

“There are several people who are talking to people in your community, getting the word out, doing everything they can to get your citizens more aware of the Guardian Angels.”

Schroeder said it would be up to the Red Deer group to decide where a patrol would be most useful.

“This would be for just one evening, but it would give the people in Red Deer a chance to actually see the Guardian Angels on the street and it will just help raise awareness.”

Schroeder said he and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa had productive talks with Red Deer Mayor Morris Flewwelling and RCMP Supt. Brian Simpson prior to the Sept. 8 meeting.

“Your community is very fortunate to have a mayor who is open to anything that can help make the city safer.”

Simpson was equally receptive, said Schroeder.

He and Sliwa met with Simpson for an hour just before the Sept. 8 public meeting.

“Since then, he probably hasn’t heard much because there haven’t been any other meetings — it’s just people talking to people, because there’s no budget, no funding, there’s no money behind us or anything. It’s just grassroots.”

While the RCMP and city have been supportive, local organizer Carmen Wallace said he has found it difficult to find people who want to become involved.

“I do talk to a fair amount of people person-to-person, and there’s a lot of people who say yes, we need the Guardian Angels in town. But when we’ve had public meetings in the past, we have very little turnout.”

Wallace said Guardian Angels need the type of people who can remain calm and cool, yet have the fortitude to deal with just about any situation that can arise.

“On the street, you’re dealing with a lot of street-type people, and a lot of those people can be pretty volatile. The average person who wouldn’t think of being violent, they get hyped up on crack or meth and they become a totally different person.”

Guardian Angels recruits are given three months of training initially, followed with regular updates.

Wallace said he and his group have not yet set a place and time for the next meeting, but expect it will be held during the second week in December.

General information is available on the Guardian Angels Edmonton website at www.edmontonguardianangels.com

Contact Brenda Kossowan at bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

By Dan Singleton - For The Calgary Herald

A Guardian Angels crime-fighting chapter should be up and running in Red Deer by spring, say local organizers.

Organizer Alaynne West says people in Alberta's third-largest city are tired of drug and violent crime, and starting a local chapter will help address those concerns.

"People are not feeling safe on the streets and we want to help people feel safe," said West, who works in Red Deer and lives in nearby Sylvan Lake. "It was proven to be a help. It's not the total solution, but it can make a difference."

Local organizers, who have been working on forming the local chapter for several months, met with Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa last weekend to discuss plans for the Red Deer chapter.

"We would like to see it up and running by springtime 2008. It takes time to get these things planned," West said. Recruiting of potential members has already started, and a local martial arts school has come on board to provide self-defence training for successful applications, she said.

Organizers plan to meet with Red Deer RCMP to discuss work on the Red Deer chapter. Guardian Angel chapters have recently opened in Calgary and Edmonton.

© The Calgary Herald 2007