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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