VICTORIA -- Colin and his dog, Teardrop, are in the midst of their daily routine of picking up more than 1,000 discarded cigarette butts. He finds them on sidewalks and boulevards before placing them in a rapidly filling coffee cup. "Otherwise they'd get flushed down the drains, into the sewers and into the ocean," Colin explains.

When he needs to take a break from their environmental efforts, they often stop at Lori's Take Away Café in Victoria's Quadra Village neighbourhood. Teardrop waits outside while Colin goes in for a coffee.

"Hi, Colin! How are you today?" Lori always greets her customers by name. Colin smiles before sitting by the window.

"Remember [the TV show] 'Cheers' where everybody knows your name?" Lori asks, with a smile. "That's what it is [here]."

Lori says she also introduces customers to each other, so strangers can hopefully become friends, while she finishes making their meals.

"It's wonderful," Lori says, of the dynamic in her café. "It's played out exactly how I imagined it would."

Owning her own restaurant is the realization of a dream that began when Lori was being raised by her grandparents.

"They taught me how to be a good person and how to cook," Lori says with a laugh. "It was an Italian household on an Italian farm!"

Now a picture of her grandparents that sits atop a café cupboard looks down on their legacy. Lori uses her grandma's recipes to create soup from scratch, in a space where everybody in the neighbourhood can feel welcome.

"I can sit and have a cup of coffee or soup and not feel rushed out," Colin says gratefully, adding that some restaurants don't serve him, or make him feel uncomfortable.

He's not the only one who appreciates this place. Lori recently won an award from Island Health for being compassionate and respectful to people living with mental health and substance abuse issues.

"As long as somebody is trying to overcome those struggles, that's your first step," Lori explains. "Everybody's comfortable here. Everybody's safe here."

When Colin is done his coffee, Lori invites him to collect her cans for recycling and offers a treat for Teardrop. Then he and his dog return to their efforts on the street. It seems both Colin and Lori are choosing to make their world a better place, in their own unique ways.

"Even though it seems overwhelming, like you can't do everything, that doesn't mean you can't do something," Colin says.