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
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