Buffalo Airways' Mikey McBryan reaches out to homeless Vancouver lottery winner
Steve Borik was wearing airline's hoodie when he appeared on CBC about ID problem
Buffalo Airways general manager Mikey McBryan has offered to put a Vancouver homeless man in a hotel for Christmas after the man appeared in a CBC News story wearing one of the airline's hoodies.
Steve Borik won $25,000 in a lottery in July but he can't cash in the ticket because he doesn't have photo identification. Borik had spent the past five months trying to get his birth certificate reissued when CBC Vancouver told his story Wednesday.
"All he wanted was to spend Christmas inside, so I got ahold of the CBC reporter," said McBryan.
He asked the reporter to relay his offer to Borik along with his cell phone number.
"I've got a lot of buddies in Vancouver," McBryan said. "We can get him set up in a hotel and he can spend Christmas in a nice warm place."
Hay River, N.W.T.-based Buffalo Airways, which flies Second World War-era DC-3 planes, was featured in the reality TV show Ice Pilots NWT and recently had its air operator licence suspended by Transport Canada due to its poor safety record.
McBryan says he hasn't yet heard from Borik but said if he doesn't want the hotel stay, he can take the offer as a cash advance. Either way, he said, it's all in the spirit of Christmas.
As for the birth certificate, CBC News helped Borik fill out the proper paperwork. It should arrive within three weeks.