Always Ask for Help

By Janet Lee and Arnie Stewart

Always Ask for Help tells the inspirational true story of Arnie Stewart in his own words. His story highlights the real life effects of never learning to read and write. Follow the story from Arnie's humble beginnings as an extremely impoverished child growing up with 11 siblings in the small mining town of Cobalt, Ontario Canada to his journey through fatherhood and eventually his work with teacher and friend, Janet Lee. Always Ask for Help is a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of Arnie Stewart, a humble man who inspired thousands of individuals through his story of education, literacy, and never giving up hope.

Arnie's Story.
The Arnie card was distributed to over 28,000 children and adults. This card was a way for students to ask for help. Initially meant for academics this card helped children ask for help with living situations, hunger, and hopelessness. Its powerful message is a reminder to never give up and always ask for help.

"When there is help there is hope." - Arnie Stewart

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781446168851

Book preview

Forward

One September afternoon, Arnie and I stood in front of a packed gymnasium of junior and intermediate students.  One little girl raised her hand and asked, Arnie, what’s your favourite word?

Arnie hesitated and tapped his fingers on his chin before he spoke.

Hope. Hope is my favourite word, he said.

I glanced over to him, and he glanced over to me. We smiled.

Of course, I thought.

Through all our trials in life, it is hope that perches in our soul. Without hope there is no direction. With hope, we can achieve the unimaginable. Arnie Stewart and I carried wings in our pockets as reminders that everyone has a story. Each story is a feather in the wing. We flew a greater distance together because our unique strengths allowed us to keep our hope alive.

This book is based on the true story of our friendship and mission to shine a light on low literacy. It contains details from both of our lives and illustrates how life’s lessons prepare us to make a difference. Meeting Arnie has been a journey of discovery for me. It has fortified my belief that we are all connected, and that each life serves a purpose that we do not always expect. I hope you read these words and find your own personal connection. I have transcribed the words exactly as Arnie has spoken them on recordings. 

Arnie’s favourite word is hope because it is hope that has gotten us this far.

Janet Lee

Arnie’s Garden

One time I had a dream of a garden.

I dreamed that we were little seeds put into the garden, all as learners. As we're put in as seeds, the rain comes down, which is all the teachers out there helping us to learn and grow. As I look around, I see beautiful little green flowers come up. I look up and I see the good Lord is the sunshine shining down looking at us.

Then I see a beautiful rainbow.

As I'm looking at the rainbow, I look back down at the garden, I see all these beautiful flowers coming up. Different kinds of flowers. Different colors of flowers just like there's different kinds of people on the earth. Different colors and kinds of people. And I look over, I see myself in the middle of that garden and it's a weed.

Give me a chance to grow. Love me a little bit. Water me a little bit and I can grow maybe into a beautiful flower just like yous people out there. And I see us all going over the rainbow looking for pots of gold someday. And I see us dropping off our petals all into that garden to help other students like myself to grow.

-ARNIE STEWART

ALWAYS ASK

FOR HELP

Arnie Stewart

and Janet Lee

Chapter 1

Bruised Apples

Hi, my name is Arnold Stewart.

I

grew up in a little mining town in Cobalt, Ontario. I spent two years in Grade 1, two years in Grade 2, two years in Grade 3, two years in Grade 4, and one hour in Grade 5.

I don't know what happened in school. I knew I was always hungry and always ashamed and afraid to ask for help. I just couldn't seem to get the ABC’s and I really don't understand to this day, why not.

I was really happy when the janitor used to let me ring the bell in the morning and ring it at recess… I used to be so happy because I was proud of ringing that bell.

A lot of times when the kids all come to school, I would sneak away and go fishing. But I was really proud of ringing that bell. I remember when I rang the bell, looking up and when I was pulling on a rope every time you pull on the rope it went ding dong! I used to look up in there. I could see a big steel thing hitting each side of the bell and the bell was way up high. I had a lot of power then because I was making it ring. It was a big black thing - a big monster of a bell. I had the power in my hand with that little rope I was pulling to make the bell sound the way it did.

I always remember in school putting my hand up and asking the teacher if I can go to the washroom. I used to sneak out in the halls where we kept all our lunch pails. I used to go up and down and sneak a cookie out of one lunch pail or a cookie or an apple out of somebody else's lunch pail. I know it was wrong, but I was very hungry and that's what I did to survive.

I know when I was in about Grade 2, I was about eight or ten years old. I went and I sold newspapers on the street. You know it was cold; we lived three miles from the school. I know - it wasn’t all uphill. Three miles in the snowstorms selling newspapers on the way back home. The reason I done that was every paper I sold I got two cents for it, so at the end of the night I tried to get 75 cents. That way I went and I got a hot, roast beef sandwich or hot, ham sandwich because it was 75 cents.

I’d ate well at home you know at least I had my stomach full. Listen, I had twelve brothers and sisters, and it was tough. But I don’t wanna hear and tell ya about all the bad times because we all go through bad times all our lives and nothing to eat all those times, no clothes and you don’t have everything everyone else has.

I went hunting a lot when I was young, and I don’t want to tell ya sad stories. I want yas to laugh. Don’t laugh at me - laugh with me. Don’t be afraid to say something.

You know everybody has problems in life. I’d give anything in the world if I could read and write. I read one book in my life. Oh, I know I’d like to read more. Every word I was scared of it.

And still when I open up a book, I’m still so scared when I see a word and I don’t understand it I give up. Instead of workin my way through it, I give up. I don’t know why.

I remember I used to go fishing a lot, catch fish. I used to make my own raft to go across lakes and I remember I went hunting all day.

We used to go hunting a lot - a thing called snaring the rabbits. We used to make snares in the bush and you see the path they took. They usually run through the bush at night to eat. But we used to go in and we used to set up these snares to catch these rabbits. I used to catch maybe two or three rabbits a day. I’d take my gun with me, maybe shoot one or two. I used to sell them to the Chinese guy, what’s the ones we didn't take home to eat. We had some extra, we could it take down and get fifty cents for a rabbit. The rabbits weighed about maybe 10 pounds or more. We sold it to the Chinese people and they had a lot of chicken chop suey and a lot of chicken chow Mein, but we never see bunny rabbit on the menu unless they ate it themselves.

I remember I’m out hunting one day and going through the bush and we were really hungry at home. I tried to catch a rabbit all day and it was getting dark at night. I come out by my Uncle Bob's place and I come up over this hill and a big rabbit jumped up in front of me. Bang, I shot him. I went and got him and threw him over my shoulder and away I went home. For some reason, I sorta looked at the rabbit and his eyes were looking at me. He was dead. But he had pink eyes!

And I said, Yeah, I've never seen a rabbit with pink eyes. They're usually brown.

But anyway. I took him home, cleaned them all up, and put him in the oven. Everybody ate. He was a big, big rabbit. We all ate. The next day, I went down to my Uncle Bob's place because we got his wood and water in. And Uncle Bob seen me coming.

He goes, Arnie, Arnie come here.

He said, Would you go look for my rabbit? I'll give you a dollar if you could find him.

I said, Oh, yeah!

He had a dollar in his hand. So, I took the dollar.

I knew where that rabbit was. I ate him. All my family ate that poor little bunny rabbit. I never told Uncle Bob about that. Never told him that I shot his rabbit. I kept his dollar, which I shouldn't have. But, yeah, I don't know. It was the rabbit's fault. He never had a collar on his neck.

I can remember the old house where we were sort of brought up in. It was an old house. It was a square house, but I had the bottom and had a top where the bedroom was. There was one big room with one bedroom, and it had two beds in it. My two oldest brothers stayed in one bed and the other six were in the other bed. There used to be quite a few holes in the roof.

I can remember my dad trying to tar paper it and stuff like that but in the wintertime, you couldn't do nothing with it. There used to be icicles hanging a lot of times. The old stove pipes come up through there and that's where we used to try to get the heat off the old stove pipes. We were always scared of them catching on fire at nighttime.

Downstairs we had one great big old table, and we’d have to eat in shifts. I think it was four at a time or five at a time because that's all the plates we had. There was twelve and we couldn’t eat at the same time. So usually, it was my dad and my two big brothers, and my two sisters ate first and then the rest of us would eat after. We always had the same amount of food. No one would take more than their half of whatever. But it was kind of tough.

I remember my dad at Christmas time got a big turkey and he was there and all us was around this table, big old wooden table. He's in the middle of the table and he's cutting the wing or the leg off this turkey.

And, I can remember him saying, Who wants the turkey leg? Who wants the drumstick, the drumstick?

We all yell about ten of us, I do, I do, I do!

He said, Hold it, hold it here, hold it here. This isn't a spider. It's a turkey. It only has two legs.

And that was a really funny thing that day. The turkey went fast. I mean, it was there one minute and gone the next. it was a big turkey, it never lasted too long with our family.

I remember my dad was very proud. In the wintertime, we were really, really hungry. I can remember we had this old toboggan and he said to my sister and I, Come on, let's go downtown with that toboggan.

We followed him downtown. We went to a store called The Red and White. We went inside.

He said, Grab some boxes.

We grabbed the box, and he went up and down aisles, throwing cans of food in, bread, and a big bag of marshmallows. I could really remember that.

And then bringing it up to the counter and the woman priced all the stuff into it. And we put it all in boxes and pulled it out in the sleigh. And Mrs. Leper was her name. She worked at the Red and White and she said, Mr. Stewart, you gotta pay.

He says, I got no money.

She said, Well, you don't have a credit here.

He said, Well, there's nothing I can do. My kids are starving, and I need some food at home.

And she said, Well, I'm gonna have to call the police.

He said, Well, you call the police. My kids ain't gonna starve to death.

And he got us and we all pulled the toboggan home about  two and a half, three miles through the snow when we got home. I can remember we're all eating, and a policeman come up - two of them - and I can remember their names, Pat Shannon and Kurt LeBaron.

And they said to my dad, Come on, you got to come downtown with us. You went in the store and took all that food.

One police officer said to him, You know, you can go on welfare and get food.

My dad really got mad and started yelling at the policeman and saying, I am not going on welfare. I just want a job. I am not gonna go on welfare!

And we were all crying, and I can remember us hanging onto my dad's pants and wouldn't let him go and let the police take him away. We were crying. I think that was the only clean faces that we had was where the tears were running down because we were afraid that he would have to go to jail.

I remember one of the officers said, OK, Mr. Stewart, you come on down tomorrow. You know where the police station is, come on down, we'll talk about it.

He went down the next day. We were all