‘Samaritan House will always be in my heart’

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This article was published 24/10/2024 (466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Barbara McNish looks back at her decades of working with Samaritan House Ministries, she says she is proud, but is quick to add, “proud of the team,” that helped make their clients’ lives better, and her job rewarding — as executive director of the food bank and Safe and Warm shelter.

“Part of our belief system at Samaritan House is helping those in need, whether that’s a bed, or if someone needs a can of soup, can we not help our brother?” said McNish.

“There have been many moments, not so much that they make you proud, but warm the heart to know that we provide a service that helps people take steps towards independence, safety, or whatever their goals are and how they deem their successes to be,” she said.

McNish will retire on Dec. 14, after 28 years with Samaritan House.

She started working at the non-profit in 1989 as women’s counselor and coordinator at Mary’s House, which provides safe housing units for women and their children who have been victims of domestic violence.

That was McNish’s first career with Samaritan’s House until about 2013. She then took a few years off to be with her family while doing odd bookkeeping jobs, and in 2017 at the age of 65, attained her Master of Education in Counselling from Brandon University.

Her second and now last career started in 2020, when she accepted the role of executive director.

During her tenure, she advocated for and succeeded in opening the 41-bed Safe and Warm shelter year-round. It had previously only been open from fall to late spring.

“Our community in Brandon is amazing,” McNish said. “We don’t do this work alone, we never have. And the prime example is the Safe and Warm shelter. The community got together with many stakeholders, and now we’re 24 hours, seven days a week as opposed to just on the coldest night when it was minus 30 below, and moving from one different location to another. That’s community,” she said.

Yesterday, the day after her retirement was made public, McNish was still doing what she always had, filling the shelves of the foodbank, and doing last minute checks of the hampers that go out daily.

But there was one difference — she was working alongside Heather Symbalisty, who will step into the role of executive director when McNish departs.

“Samaritan House couldn’t ask for a better replacement,” McNish said.

Symbalisty is a former executive director of YWCA Westman and is McNish’s current executive assistant.

“I have been mentored by Barbara regarding a lot of the ins and outs of Samaritan House for the last several months,” Symbalisty said.

“But I actually started here at the employment resource centre as an administrator and employment officer. I helped clients with résumé and cover letter writing and job searches. And I held workshops for those who just needed to brush up their skills to get back into the workplace,” said Symbalisty.

The job is a calling, she aded — one that she knows is anything but Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I know that it is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job, which I’m familiar with, and I know that I represent Samaritan House Ministries every day, whether I am in the building or not,” Symbalisty said.

“And we have a great team and a really good board of directors that help get the work done.

Samaritan House board chair David Simard said the transition has been smooth bringing Symbalisty into her new role, adding the board is grateful and blessed to have her wealth of experience.

When he talked about McNish, Simard said he’ll miss her, “she’s always been the biggest advocate of the community we serve who treated everyone with dignity and respect, and we need more of that in today’s world, way more.”

While McNish said she is leaving Samaritan House in good hands, it’s at a time when the foodbank is busier than ever.

In the early 1990s, she said, they were supplying 600 hampers a month. Now it’s 1,500 a month and about 1,300 a week, with almost 2,000 new people in the last two years, many who have “never had to use a food bank before.”

When asked what she had planned for retirement, McNish laughed and said, “rest and relax.” She said she will also pursue her interest in her family history and perhaps travel.

“And being on deck, you know, if they need a volunteer or something. Samaritan House will always be in my heart.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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