It’s a simple gesture, it doesn’t cost anything and can brighten someone’s day with a mere few words. A sign, a post, a message – such is the humble calling card in front of St. Albert’s Red Willow Community Church on Corriveau (near Servus Place), which for more than 20 years, has been brightening the day of passersby with thoughtful, clever or encouraging messages.
Audie Benson is the man behind the sign, a Sturgeon County resident and founding member of the Red Willow Community Church congregation, one he helped build starting in 1990, with an addition that went up in 2006. Owner of Estate Homes (a custom home builder), Benson said he came to these parts after a childhood in Medicine Hat, where a church sign in his neighbourhood offered similar messages.
“I was a non-Christian the first 28 years of my life, but I always looked forward to reading those signs on the church near my home,” said Benson, now a member of the Seventh-day Adventist faith. “When we built the church here, I knew I’d do the same kind of sign. I wanted to pay it forward, and this has been my passion ever since.”
It must be a passion, or a calling, for rain or shine, in minus 30 or plus 30 temperatures, Benson climbs a ladder and changes the letters of his sign ( a half-hour job) every two weeks, year round.
“When it’s been that cold, I’ve put up a sign that says ‘The sign is broken – no message’ until the cold snap ends,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often, and even when I’m away on vacation, I leave planned messages with a friend to put up for me.”
While the nearly 400 members of Red Willow Church rarely comment on the sign messages, other St. Albert residents and those working near or driving by the Campbell Park location do let the wordsmith and church know when a message has moved them in some way.
“We regularly get calls and emails to the church that say a sign has made them look at things differently, or that we’ve made their day,” Benson said. “I’ve never heard a complaint about it.”
In his 11 years as senior pastor at the church, Reverend Dan Rochford he’s heard nearly only positive comments on the signs from community members (religious or not) who drive by and are moved by a message.
“It gives people a good feeling,” he said. “I suspect we may have to update the technology within the next 10 years, but I don’t think it’ll stop.”
Yes, he has worn out several sets of letters over the years, and his desk drawer is full of scraps of paper with messages to consider (people email and text things they find online, in magazines, etc.) but Benson said there is some method to deciding what to put up on the sign. Though rarely repeating one, he does put up the same words after Christmas each year – Wise men still seek Him – and tries to work with seasonal thoughts, too. Around Mother’s Day, Benson has posted “If at first you don’t succeed, do what your mom tells you.” Benson said he always looks for messages that are meaningful to anyone – religious or not – that are humorous, encouraging and, of course, short.
“One of my favourites is, ‘I used to do the hokey pokey, but I turned myself around,’ ” laughed the 59-year-old Benson, whose wife, son and daughter also contribute to the message selections. “I like spiritual ones too, like ‘When life’s too hard to stand, try kneeling.’ I still enjoy doing it very much and I can’t see stopping. At some point, I suppose I will have to make that switch to an electronic sign. But not yet.”
