THUNDER BAY – The partnership between the Guardian Angels and Mac’s Convenience Stores is now official.
The non-profit anti-crime group joined with officials from the Mac’s Convenience store chain Sunday at the store’s 346 May Street location to celebrate the new partnership. Announced earlier in May, the partnership will see the Angels use Mac’s stores as mini offices. There will also be increased patrols in those areas of the city.
"This is a residential area, a lot of people say it is an area with a high crime rate,” said Ian Hodgkinson, leader of the Guardian Angel’s Thunder Bay chapter. “There are a lot of good people who live here.”
Hodgkinson said he believes a the selling, using and abusing of drugs in this south-side neighbourhood make it a logical choice to show residents that the Guardian Angels are serious about their crime busting mandate.
So far Hodgkinson said residents appear to be responding positively, and that recruitment in the area has already led to seven new members in the last week.
"It is my job to get the Guardian Angels out there in Canada, on a National level," Hodgkinson said.
"This partnership with Mac's has been a stepping stone, a testing ground, and if it works here it is going to work everywhere else."
Sean Sportun, Mac’s Convenience Store’s manager of security and loss of prevention of Canada, said with the Angels organization being new in the city, Mac's Convenience stores wanted to be able to support the patrols and other.
"We want to support our partnership with them, by kind of offering the Angels a place to meet up and figure out what their game plan is and head out from there," he said. "We really want to support their community initiative."
Both Sportun and Hodgkinson both said they were thrilled to be able to physically see the growth that this partnership has brought the Angels.
Hodgkinson said he hopes to be able to expand as much as possible in the near future.
