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The Army a saviour to Second Cup founder
Frank O'Dea slept on park benches and in flop houses, begged for change on the street and drank 99-cent bottles of wine in back alleys.
O'Dea says if not for the Salvation Army he'd still be on skid row.
Or dead, like at least one person he drank with.
More than 35 years later, O'Dea has been lauded for co-founding the Second Cup coffee chain, helping found Street Kids International and receiving the Order of Canada from the Governor General.
O'Dea admitted during Wednesday's breakfast kicking off the Salvation Army's annual Christmas Appeal in the city that it's a long way from a park bench to the boardrooms of companies and the offices of politicians.
"How do you go from skid row to Rideau Hall? Hope, vision and action," he said.
"We need the Salvation Army more than ever now because the first part of recovery is hope and they give hope."
O'Dea said he started drinking when he was 13, was thrown out of the family home at 21, lost several jobs and was soon on skid row on Jarvis Street.
"If you went there today you'd find people drinking out of paper bags and sleeping on benches," he said.
"I was one of them. Everything I had was on my back."
O'Dea said he and two other street people would panhandle on Yonge Street and when they'd each accumulated 99 cents they would buy a cheap bottle of wine and drink it.
O'Dea said he finally decided to phone an alcoholics' help line to help him get off the bottle. He said the Salvation Army gave him a place to stay during the six months it took for him to dry out and it also bought him a suit to look for a job.
That was 1971. By 1974, he was campaign manager for a successful Liberal MP and had decided to go into business with a campaign volunteer. First they sold coin sorters, then they decided to sell coffee. Since then O'Dea, who was bought out by his coffee partner in 1985, has gone on to co-found Proshred Security. O'Dea has been founding chairman of War Child (Canada) and co-founder of the Canadian Landmine Foundation.
Meanwhile, Capt. Les Marshall of the Salvation Army said they're hoping this year's annual Christmas Appeal raises more than $335,000. Last year, the campaign received more than $332,000. Marshall said about 3,000 children were given toys last Christmas, but this year that total is expected to be up to about 5,000.
Premier Gary Doer was one of the first to put cash in an Army kettle at the breakfast. Milt McLean, president of the Thomas Sill Foundation, presented cheques totalling $9,000, while Leonard McAuliffe, president of INVIS, contributed $20,000.
The breakfast also heard that kettle donations at local branches of the Scotiabank will be matched by the bank.