Stephe Lawson (Christie N Stephe Lawson) is one of the long-term COVID-19 survivors who we have all heard about but few have met. Two years ago, Stephe contracted the Coronavirus at work, and for the 24 months to follow, and considerable time still to come, he has been battling the effects of the infection. Once a very healthy man who worked all day on his feet, now Stephe needs to carry oxygen, and he struggles to do many of life's most common tasks.
We met Stephe and his wife Christie back in late 2020 when they took part in our video "The COVID-19 Pandemic - Our Homefront Battle - Barrie and Simcoe County, 2021" found at https://www.fivepointsmedia.ca/the-covid-19-pandemic-our-homefront-battle-2021.html. So, when he told us about his intention to raise money for the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre Foundation through a sponsored walk as a way of saying thank you, we were very happy to help.
Sadly, in a two-week period, our Producer, John Ironside, lost a neighbour and friend due to illegal rental arrangements demanded by a slumlord, and then our Associate Producer, Tiffany Scott, lost her mother to a long-term battle with cancer. The funeral for the former and mourning for the latter left us unable to cover the entire event.
We were able to record an interview with Stephe and with Mayor Jeff Lehman, and thankfully, Stephe and his supporters provided us with pictures of the event for us to share. Our sincerest thanks to all of them.
We would like to thank the following sponsors of the Ontario Community Awareness Network. These businesses show they care about our shared community by helping us to provide a not-for-profit truly local voice to you and your neighbours. They also enable our crew to be able to continue providing donated services to promote local benevolent community groups and charities based in The City of Barrie, the Town of Innisfil, and the Township of Oro-Medonte.
Assisting You Social - Social Media Management
Backcountry K9 Kennel - Day Care, Overnight, and Grooming
Beauty & Babes - Salon and Spa
Checkered Door - Transition to Adult ASD
Enterprise Mechanical Inc. - Heating and Air Conditioning
Family TLC - Family Counselling and Therapy
Growing Minds Learning Centre - Daycare Centre
Hwear Plus/Canadian Toggle - Personal Protection
Imagine Laserworks Barrie - Laser Acupuncture Services
Latchman Insurance Brokers Limited - Providing All Types
Michael Enterprise Audio & Visual
Northlink General Contracting
Theatre By The Bay - Live Performances
3B Solutions - Video and Media
Videography and Post-production by John Ironside
Five Points Media has recently transitioned to become an active part of a new provincially registered not-for-profit corporation called the Ontario Community Awareness Network. To the best of our knowledge, ours will be the only community channel of its kind in the province if not the entire country.
We are looking for new programming ideas, with our focus being mostly on fringe and minority groups whose members are mostly ignored by mainstream media. These include, but are not limited to, the Indigenous population, People of Colour, members of the LGBTQQIP2SAA community, and people of various cultures and religions.
We will continue to donate all video and media services to registered charities and benevolent not-for-profit groups that promote unity and support all members of the community. Our eventual goal will be to expand our programming to cover all of Ontario through a network of regional bureau facilities. This service will help all people in Ontario to learn about each other and work in unity.