Timmins 'Yo! Mobile' founder handing keys to local addictions group

The iconic black and yellow school bus seen giving food and clothing to Timmins' homeless and hungry will be rolling on under new leadership, as the Yo! Mobile's founder, Mario Dussault, plans to step back to focus on his health.

Dussault tapped the Risk Takers 705 Chapter to carry the charity forward, after almost a year of volunteering at the bus and operating their own food and clothing drives around the city.

"I think it's a good time for me to pass this (on) because the young guys are so good with the people and ... they have the same passion I had, when I started this. I'm very happy," said Dussault, who founded the Yo! Mobile over a decade ago.

"(If) you don't have the people in Timmins, you don't have the Yo! Mobile. Everybody who helped me with this, thank you so much."

Dan Gloster leads the local Risk Takers chapter, an addictions and mental health group focused on recovery and peer support.

He said once the final details are signed off, the group would like to expand the bus' operations.

"We'd like to run it year-round because (with) the wintertime, it just didn't sit right with me to stop feeding people," Gloster said at the group's community Easter dinner outside the Living Space shelter on Spruce Street South.

"We handed out 6,208 meals, throughout the winter, so we'd like to continue going year-round."

Part of what Dussault said made him confident that the Risk Takers will be dedicated operators of the bus is the dedication they've shown to helping those in need over the past year, as well as their shared backstories of formerly being on the streets, receiving help and wanting to pay that forward.

"I've been an addict. I've been to jail. I've turned my life around, I've been clean nine years," Gloster said.

"Just trying to give back ... trying to help out where I can. Trying to get people - show them that, you know, there is life after recovery."