The SeaBus Safety Announcement: a fond farewell

This is one of those “wistful moments”: the Transport Canada safety announcement that I voiced for the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze – the latest of the three SeaBus vessels – is about to be retired, if it hasn’t been already. With the new SeaBus about to be launched, they had to re-do those announcements; and thus ends the last “official” connection I had with TransLink. True, people still come up to me in the street or on buses and talk to me about transit, nearly two years after I was let go, but the voiceover was the official link.

The story behind the recording of the voiceover, though, runs a bit deeper than simply “Drew reads a script”, and it’s another way that TransLink blessed my ministry on the Downtown East Side. I had already been brought into a job that required me to be on-call pretty much all the time. This meant that I was not required to be in the office the customary 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday, so if I was needed for something at Gospel Mission, I could deal with it. Ken Hardie and Erin Dermer both said, “I know you get the job done here: go do what you have to.” 

There were individual displays of support, too, like one planner who got guests at his and his fiancée’s engagement party to bring socks and underwear; an executive who, in lieu of the customary bottles of wine for his staff at Christmas, made donations in their names to the Mission; and the huge response when I sent out a mass email to staff asking for blankets and warm clothing when an unexpected cold snap hit.

The Breeze, which was launched in 2009, was built with significantly different specifications from the first SeaBuses – the Burrard Otter and the Burrard Beaver – and that included the audio/visual system. Coast Mountain Bus Company, which operates SeaBus, realized that the safety announcement would have to be re-recorded in a format compatible with the new system, but for whatever reason, the announcer who did the current announcement was not available and the new version was needed immediately.

I forget how this came to my attention (it may have been a heads-up that there could be a media inquiry about a potential delay), but I stepped up and offered to voice it myself, using my home studio. But there was a slight ethical conundrum. If I charged for my services, there would be a question of conflict of interest and an untendered job. If I didn’t charge, I could be accused of undercutting a fellow voiceover professional. But the job had to be done.

The solution? I would quote them what I would charge for the job: if they were pleased with the product, CMBC would make a donation to Gospel Mission. CMBC agreed, and a few more Mission bills got paid.

God works in amazing ways to make sure His purpose is fulfilled. Time and again, He worked through TransLink to bless the Mission and the people it serves. In fact, when we were building The Lord’s Rain, the media attention we garnered – which helped to raise awareness and funds from the public – was due to the fact that I had made friends among the reporters through our TransLink connection. The SeaBus VO was just one of those ways.

It wasn’t something we noised-about, but I think it’s OK now to mention it. And so, one more time: The SeaBus Safety Announcement. http://youtu.be/ADygjHgR6x4

Thank you, Ken!

There's nothing like a dressing-down from a judge to put your life on-track.

"Mr Franklin, you are not a career bank robber. You are a drug addict."

Ken Franklin was up before the beak for pulling 14 bank jobs in a short period, getting more money to buy more drugs. He had fallen in with the dealers and pimps while in a halfway house (yes, the facility intended to get convicts ready to return to society) and, seeing the "cornflakes boxes full of cash" they would bring in and needing to finance his habit, started his spree. Being of slight stature, he also wanted to show that You Don't Mess Around With Ken.

There was also something about the thrill of the chase that Ken found addictive, but when the law finally caught up with him, the words of Judge Harry Boyle made the reality all too clear. 

​

Ken carried a photocopy of that clipping with him in a shirt pocket everywhere he went.

By the time I got to know Ken, he had cleaned up and was part of the street cleanup team hired by The Bottle Depot to pick up trash around the Downtown East Side and would come into The Lord's Rain on his coffee break. One morning in 2011, I had to announce to the group that we had to limit the number of pastries we handed out to two per person. Believe it or not, I felt like I had to apologize for the new regulation, but Ken spoke up as if he was speaking for everyone and said, "That's OK: we appreciate everything you do."

That wasn't the only gesture of support. When he heard on the radio in 2013, that I had been let go from TransLink, he came into The Lord's Rain and growled, "you deserve better". Hello? Someone in a down-and-out area, telling me that I deserved better? Truly, there was something, well, different about Ken.

Earlier this year, Ken asked if he could volunteer at The Lord's Rain. "I got a lot of time on my hands," he said, "and I'd like to help out." He quickly showed he was a natural leader, taking charge without being pushy and showing by example how to treat "customers". As time went on, he told me how he had been Saved while in prison for the robberies, thanks to the female prison guard he eventually married. They had bought and operated the coffee shop at the 108 Mile Guest Ranch in the Cariboo, and it was there that he developed this knack for dealing with people. It was something Danilo sorely needed, and he was starting to develop it, working with Ken.

​

For Gary, has the responsibility of making sure The Lord's Rain is open at 6:30am, Ken was a welcome addition, a reliable extra pair of eyes to welcome the people. He treated everyone with unfailing respect, and it was never better demonstrated than when a mentally ill man "went off" on him one morning a few weeks ago, standing almost nose-to-nose with Ken and threatening him. Ken stood his ground but did not "return evil for evil". His mates on the cleanup crew started calling him Pastor Ken, but with respect rather than mockery, and there was a distinctly different, more up-beat, vibe around The Lord's Rain when he was serving.

In the past few weeks, though, Ken missed the occasional morning, then would come in and tell us he had been ill and couldn't get out of bed. He started losing weight and had trouble eating. "I'm scared," he confided. "I don't know what's wrong." "Have you seen a doctor?" "Not yet." I don't know if he ever did.

No one on the street-cleaning crew saw him for a week, which was unusual. Finally, this past Friday, someone went through the door at his hotel and found his body. It appears he had been gone for about four days.

Dying alone and unnoticed in a skid row hotel: certainly not an uncommon occurrence on the Downtown East Side, and my first thought was to say to Ken, "you deserve better". But while I miss him terribly, and I know the others do, it's tough to be sad because I have a really good idea where he is now, where there is no pain or sickness and he gets a reward that none of us deserves. As The Newsboys put it in their song, "The day he bought those pine pajamas/His check was good with God"*. 

Ken shared his story for a video project I've been working on, called "In His Image, Too ...", and which is currently airing on LivingStrongTV.com, a Christian internet TV station. You'll find the interview here, and Ken's portion begins around 14:30. Unless this part was edited for time, he says at one point that he would like to help others in some way with his own testimony and hope to inspire them in their lives. Judging by the way some of the guys talked about him on Saturday, as the news spread, I'd say he's done that.

Thank you, Ken!

____

*from "Breakfast", by Steve Taylor and Peter Furler