Bio: Bobby Hayes, 51, lives in Saint John. After volunteering in his spare time to help impoverished people and addicts living on the street for several years, he formed the Joshua Group in 1993, an organization that provides Sunday breakfast and activities for the city's at-risk youth. Hayes is a top 10 finalist in CBC and Outpost magazine's Champions of Change contest. CBCNews.ca Your Voice asked him why he volunteers.

My story: I would often go into some of the rundown houses to give food to people that were on welfare and old age pension. I would find these people sleeping in bus stops, garbage bins, old cars, park benches and old abandoned buildings. I would give them doughnuts, juice, coffee and a smile, and tell them God loved them. I kept my truck full of food to hand out as I went along doing my job street sweeping or driving a plow truck. Some nights I would feed 50 to 75 people. If I ran out of food I would go buy bread and meat and make [sandwiches] in my truck.

I remember going into a crack house and meeting a little eight-year-old boy who was scared to come out to meet me. So I left the food and my phone number, and he called me a few days later. We became good friends and he told his friends about me, so I could help them as well.

Next thing I knew, there were 40 to 50 kids. So I went and asked a church if I could bring them to church with me. They thought it was a couple of kids. When they saw all the kids, they were in shock -- it was too much for the church.

So I went to the park with all the kids, where we didn't have to worry about noise and the mess, just the weather. I got my barbecue and started cooking burgers and hotdogs.
Some days there would be 150 kids there.

Some of the trials that the kids went through were tough. Drugs were really taking a toll on the kids and their families and still are. I didn't realize ... how much the kids depended on me. If, for some reason, I never showed up, maybe because of work, sometimes the kids would call looking for me.

Seeing the poverty and neglect, I found myself down with the kids more and more. I was going home knowing I could not help with [enough] milk or bread. I just never had the money. I would go home in my basement, put a blanket over my head and cry, because I felt like I failed these kids and I didn't want my own kids to see me. I had a few of those nights.

I asked people to help, but all I heard was "not now." So, I started mowing lawns, digging ditches, painting, garbage cleanup ... anything I had to do, I would do. The kids helped as soon as I'd get off work. We'd load up the lawnmowers and away we'd go. We're still doing it.

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