Monday, January 2, 2017

Three Things for Canada - Acts of Service

Calgary’s Major Naheed Nenshi sent out a challenge not just to Calgarians but to all Canadians to help make 2017 an awesome and inspiring year but asking each citizen to do 3 Things for Canada (as acts of service) this year.  What an amazing thought and a wonderful way to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday year.  I hope that schools will take this on as a very teachable way to create good citizens for the future and corporations can take this on as their way of giving back to the community.  For the rest of us citizens it is a way to bring us back to our core values and forget the vanity and materialism in the world in putting other people first.  The way forward in civilization is to look out for one another and work towards the common good.  What a way to show Canada’s greatness in the world – leading the way (one hopes).
I have thought of various ways that this could be done without contravening my personal bias against charitable organizations or a volunteerism that would rob people of paying jobs.  It took some thinking and researching to come up with some ideas but here they are:
Blood donations, visiting with seniors, donating to the food bank, donating clothing to not-for-profit charities, paying forward at coffee shops or grocery stores, donating books and magazines to senior homes, local shelters and other organizations in need.  Donating time to community events and services, shovelling neighbours’ sidewalks or driveways, cutting their grass, helping weed their gardens, donating seeds or plants to other gardeners, walking neighbours’ dogs, volunteering at animal shelters or volunteering at school events.  Some of the volunteering is skirting the line in taking away a paid position but one also has to be cognizant of the need for these volunteers because the money just doesn’t seem to be forthcoming from the government.  There are a lot more types of volunteering such as helping to serve meals at local shelters, driving people to cancer treatments and more. 
My personal goal will be to try to do an act of service once a month therefore I will do a check-in with you in April to see how I am getting along.  I hope others may take the challenge that Mayor Nenshi has issued and at the same time find personal fulfillment in doing something nice for their neighbour.

 

Use hashtag  #3ThingsforCanada to move it forward and check it out at http://good-company.ca/3-things-canadas-150th/

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