SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - John Westergreen is on a crusade to make the world a better place.

John Westergreen holds up baby clothing he was folding in Yellowknife, as part of the Haitian Children Rescue Mission, based out of Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The group individually washed and folded about 300 pounds of clothing this year, then packed the clothes away in hockey bags to be shipped to Haiti at some point this year. All the clothes were donated from the Yellowknife Salvation Army - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

Westergreen lives his life based on the biblical proverb by Isaiah, "Fasting is not worship. Worship is helping the poor, the needy and those in trouble." Every aspect of his volunteer work, seems to have this underlying theme.

From past years of helping the SideDoor gain financial security to his current job of working with inmates at North Slave Correction Centre to write resumes and find job placements, Wintergreen’s life is a testimony to his passion for helping others.

Westergreen is now retired from the engineering field, but believes his skills as an engineer are useless if he doesn't use them to help others, and he has been busy doing just that. In 2004, he designed the electrical interfaces for the Logos Hope, a ship owned by Operation Mobilization Ships International (OM Ships). The Logos Hope's mandate is to help bring knowledge, aid and hope to people in need. To date, the Logos Hope has visited 26 countries and has had a total of 833,806 visitors. Westergreen has travelled aboard the Logos Hope four months per year since 2004.

He remembers the exact day he was given the message that he could help others in a bigger capacity than just at the local level.

"It was Jan. 27, 1999, and I was in Argentina working on a previous (OM Ships), when I looked at a crowd of people and asked myself how many people wanted to have our help from this ship. I saw 16,000 people looking for help and I saw 43,000 people come onto the ship and receive help in three weeks," said Westergreen.

Locally, Westergreen has bought four properties that were in less than ideal shape and hired men straight out of prison to help fix up the homes.

"I have broken men in broken lives, I buy broken houses and we fix them with the broken men. I teach the men to be accountable for themselves," said Westergreen.

He also owns an additional house, which he rents to the Katimavik Group, a youth volunteering program. Katimavik aims to foster social, personal and professional development in its volunteers while providing volunteer service to people in need.

Westergreen is also involved with the Vincent de Paul Society and Yellowknife Food Rescue.

"I deeply feel connected to the North and I feel deeply connected to the communities. I'm not afraid to help people – I care. God's calling for me is to serve people," Westergreen said.

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