Push For Change passes through Aylmer

Elgin County Ontario Provincial Police Constable Adam Crewdson, left, road support driver Jamie Orozco, Push For Change’s Joe Roberts and Aylmer Police Constable Charity Duckworth stopped briefly on the eastern outskirts of Aylmer before Mr. Roberts trek through town on Tuesday morning, Nov. 15. Mr. Roberts is pushing a customized shopping cart across Canada to raise awareness of youth homelessness and money for a national school-based program aimed at ending it. Mr. Roberts, 49, began his 9,000 kilometre and 517 day journey across Canada in May 2016 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and plans to end the trip in September 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Roberts chose to push a shopping cart as it is known as a symbol of chronic homelessness. Now the head of a successful multimedia company, Mr. Roberts, who is originally from Midland, Ontario, was addicted to drugs and homeless as a teenager, living under a bridge at one point in Vancouver. He hopes to raise $17.5-million for the anti-youth homelessness program. Mr. Roberts continued along Talbot Street through Aylmer on Tuesday morning and then along Talbot Line (Highway 3) with a scheduled arrival in St. Thomas for noon.