In the waning, lazy days of summer, Tony Roost was focused on back-to-school, and thinking about what the children living at Nellie’s would need to start the year off right. He figured backpacks, notebooks, pens and pencils topped each of their lists, so he got to work collecting supplies and packing boxes.
“The need at Nellie’s never goes away,” says Tony, founder of One Fire Movement, a growing arts collective that uses the power of social enterprise to create powerful change. “When we give to Nellie’s, we know we are giving directly to families in need.”
One Fire Movement marries its celebration of the arts, with events such as live music and dancing at Pedestrian Sundays Kensington Market, with community engagement. Collective artists include songwriters, visual artists, graphic artists, musicians, photographers, and more. As an artist, songwriter, musician and poet himself, Tony founded One Fire Movement in 2009 when he quit a corporate sales and marketing job with a burning desire to help. “I essentially challenged myself to focus more on things that give me fulfillment and satisfaction in terms of my heart and soul.”
He started by calling local shelters to ask what they most needed and then engaged a few like-minded friends to pitch in. Before long, he had carloads of donations and supplies for a number of shelters, including Nellie’s.
“After my first visit to Nellie’s, I decided I wanted to see if I could push the snowball even further,” he says. And he has. Over the years, One Fire Movement has marched with Nellie’s on International Women’s Day, performed for our community in honour of Mother’s Day, sponsored a number of families every holiday season, and delivered much-needed back-to-school supplies.
“I was raised by a single mom on welfare and I was the kid who got the Christmas wish boxes every year. She was a mom who experienced violence, so working with Nellie’s just feels right,” says Tony. “There are so many factors that connect me to Nellie’s that make me want to be able to do more and more.”
It’s an honour, he says, to support an organization like Nellie’s. “A question I ask myself every day is: ‘are we doing enough for someone else and can we do more?’”
Thank you, Tony, and every member of One Fire Movement for your tremendous support of Nellie’s. Your generosity and passion mean so much to the women and their children who need us.
