Buffalo Airways' Mikey McBryan reaches out to homeless Vancouver lottery winner

Buffalo Airways general managerMikey McBryanhas 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'shoodies.

• B.C. homeless man Steve Borik wins lotto, but can't claim prize because he lacks ID

SteveBorikwon $25,000 in a lottery in July buthe can't cash in the ticket because he doesn't have photo identification.Borikhadspent the past fivemonths 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 phonenumber.

"I've got a lot of buddies in Vancouver," McBryan said. "We can get him set up in a hoteland 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 hedoesn'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.