FAST FIVE: Gar Mickelson believes in second chances

Meet longtime community resident Gar Mickelson. Gar and his wife Vicki both grew up in Coeur d’Alene and were married in 1980. Gar has been serving our community in various capacities since 1993 after having owned and operated his own landscaping business in the area. First working with youth as a youth pastor for 11 years, Gar then moved into community outreach work serving at-risk populations. In 2013, Gar founded Kaleidoscope Community Services (KCS), a local faith-based nonprofit serving community members who are currently experiencing poverty and homelessness.

Generation:

My birth year (1960) places me in the Baby Boomer generation, but I’ve always felt I fit better in the Gen X category. Both my parents worked outside of our home so I grew up sort of a latchkey kid without a lot of adult supervision, which was more prominent in Gen X kids. As a result, I grew with more of a social identity around my groups of friends rather than family. Gen Xers have also tended to be more entrepreneurial in nature, which fits me to a T.

Career and community involvement:

Over the last 40 years I have been a business owner (landscaping and nursery industry), a youth pastor, a community outreach pastor, an associate superintendent of local outreach in the Pacific Northwest for my denomination, a church consultant and an executive director of a local nonprofit. In my younger years I held a smattering of other positions such as a laborer, a fish cutter and window salesman! In my work career I have mostly gravitated toward service to the broken and poor and service to our community through networking, education and awareness, and creating initiatives that help those in need while creating opportunities for healthier community members to participate.

Parental status:

My wife Vicki and I have two adult children and five grandkids, four girls and a boy, who range from 12 to 16 years of age. We are a close-knit bunch and love being together. Our kids and their families live in the Seattle area.

1. What inspired you to found Kaleidoscope Community Services, and what are a few things your organization does?

Over the last couple of decades of ministry in our community, I noticed a growing need for a local faith-based nonprofit that could serve as a hub of informed and collaborative outreach activity benefiting those of our community experiencing dire needs and crisis. My vision was to create a grassroots nonprofit made up of ‘practitioners’ who desired to express their faith through serving the broken and poor of our community. Having determined that direction in my heart and mind, and because there were no jobs available with that particular job description, I decided to start my own nonprofit. At Kaleidoscope we express our mission through serving people in crisis through our benevolence fund — car repairs, bus tickets home, prescription meds, utility bills, rent assistance, etc. We employ people through our nonprofit business KCS Land and Home. We befriend, mentor and provide some case management services. We help people find housing, and we partner with many organizations and businesses in the community. We also provide education and awareness training services to individuals and groups who want to learn how to connect within our community in helpful ways. We also founded and managed the 2nd Street Commons in downtown Coeur d’Alene. In collaboration with our partners, loving volunteers served hundreds and hundreds of people in crisis over the seven years we managed it. Just last September, we turned the management of the Commons over to our longtime ministry partner, 2nd Chance Discipleship Ministries, which we expect will take that outreach to new heights.

2. From your perspective, what is the status of homelessness and addiction in North Idaho that people might not be aware of?

Over the years, I have talked to many people who have said, “I had no idea there were homeless people in Coeur d’Alene.” Actually, there is a substantial number of homeless persons in our area (county wide), who aren’t readily seen. Most of those experiencing homelessness do not want anyone to know about their situation. This is driven by fear and shame; fear because they are afraid they will lose their employment and/or standing among their peers, and shame because they feel like failures. I think addiction rolls the same way. Most addicts hide their addiction for the same reasons. Hiding is one of the biggest hurdles to recovery because it keeps people in isolation. Hiding a problem does not help anything and it certainly isn’t the way to a healthy life or a healthy community.

3. Why should our community care about these issues?

First of all, we should care about these issues because it is right to care and it is good to care. It’s "right" because we should treat others how we ourselves would like to be treated - the ‘Golden Rule,’ right? It is also "good" for us to care because helping others makes us feel great, like we have done something meaningful outside of ourselves. Next, we should care because we want our communities to be safe and productive. If we ignore homelessness and addiction trends, we will face the consequences as a community down the line. Ignoring these challenges will result in more crime, more juvenile delinquency, economic volatility and more expense to taxpayers because of increased costs in healthcare, judicial systems, law enforcement and correctional systems.

4. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

I absolutely cannot stand watermelon. Even thinking about watermelon makes me gag. Everybody in North Idaho loves watermelon right? Not. Me.

5. How can we as a society be like Kaleidoscope and better serve our neighbors who are struggling?

Compassion and empathy: We need to be determined that becoming "others-centered" is preferable to being "self-centered." Transparency: We need to stop hiding from issues and problems and pretending they don’t exist. Time: We need to make room in our lives for service to community. Education and awareness: We need to commit to learn about the social issues facing our community and issues faced by those who can’t compete for jobs or keep up economically with skyrocketing costs of living. Plan: We need to join with others who are on the ground doing this kind of work, and we also need to include those community members who are caught up in it. This is where the planning wisdom and solutions are. Initiate: At some point in time, we have to be willing to break dirt. We need a plethora of compassionate and well-funded programs to meet the challenges before us. Solutions and results will be in direct proportion to the number of creative and diverse initiatives tabled by catalyst individuals and groups.