Many Hands

 

Growing up in a 'remote' (at the time it was pretty remote) small town, the people of the town were always ready and willing to help others in distress.  If there was an emergency, either large or personal, someone was always there to rally the troops, as it were, and make things better.

I remember talking to someone newly arrived in town and she was bemoaning the fact that something or other wasn't being done.  I suggested she get together with some others to help make it happen.  She literally took a step back, astonished that I would even suggest such a thing.  I told her that that was how things got done in this town.  If someone saw a need, they would collect a bunch of other residents and set about doing it.

Like the new university.  (Well, new in the 1990s)

Most people don't know that this town was a planned community.  It was a railway town and as such the streets were laid out long before there were many people living in the area.  Lots were then sold along pre-existing streets.  But the thing is, the city 'fathers' (because they were only male in the early 1900s) also set aside land for a university.

In the 1980s people began to clamour for a university here.  There was a lot of lobbying of both provincial and federal levels of government and eventually the spokesperson for the community group found himself in Ottawa talking to the minister responsible for funding such things.  The government basically asked what the town was bringing to the table and the question then became, how much?  How much does the town need to raise in order to get federal funding for this necessary thing?  One million dollars was the answer.  A not insignificant sum in the 1980s while we were going through an economic recession.

The spokesperson came back and got onto the local media and started getting the message out.  Individuals were asked to make a donation.  Anything.  One dollar, five dollars, whatever.  There were bake sales, auctions, car washes.  And individuals donated money.

In less than one year, this little town scraped and saved and the spokesperson went back to Ottawa, slapped the cheque down on the minister's desk and said, here.  Now get us the rest.

This isn't the only story, just the one that is, perhaps, the most memorable to me for many reasons.

It is something I have carried with me through my entire life - my mother and her friends, catering weddings for the church, at X per plate.  Putting together services to make the hospital nicer - the library cart, the flower delivery service, the baby layettes, eventually the gift shop and thrift shop.  And donating thousands of dollars to the hospital to buy needed equipment that wasn't in the budget.  

If a natural disaster happened - like flooding - dozens of people along the riverbanks setting out sandbags.

Just a few years ago when our area was under threat of gigantic wildfires, our town took in 10,000 evacuees.  Many businesses donated things, like discounts at restaurants or other stores.  Many people fled with very little notice and they just grabbed what they could and ran.

Many hands make light work.  

Want to stop a pandemic?  Wear a mask.  

Want to make things better?  Work to make it so.

Want to promote equality?  Be inclusive.

Lighting someone else's candle does not diminish my own...