As happened throughout 2012, Saturdays are a day to celebrate heroes.
Yesterday, I took the new West LRT line to the 45st station and then walked the 25 minute journey home. It was delightful. Peaceful. A wonderful way to unwind from my day. I am grateful for this new rapid transit line, grateful to the city and the engineers and architects and designers and construction teams and those whose lives were disrupted by its construction.
The West LRT was built by heroes.
Nav works at the Calgary Homeless Foundation where I am now working on contract 3 days a week. Along with financially supporting Christmas at the Madison, Nav came by my office space this week to give me a BlueRay DVD player for one of the residents. “I bought a new TV and this came with it,” he said. “I don’t need it, maybe someone at The Madison does.” And he’s right. Someone does.
Nav is a hero.
My daughter Alexis phoned me last night about an event she’s organizing as a special project to support Project True in Vancouver. She’s inviting friends and acquaintances to an evening of wine and cheese and music and… a unique clothing sale. Each guest is invited to clean out their closets and bring at least one item of clothing to donate. The clothing will be sold at the event and proceeds will go to Project True. She’s already got a number of people signed up to participate and is excited!
Alexis, Project True and those looking to support this important initiative are heroes.
And… because I like to share inspiring things I find on the web — and the web is so incredibly filled with interesting and inspiring ideas — I’m sharing a video from DoSomething.org, an organization that harnesses the awesome energy of teens and unleashes it on causes teens care about. So, if like me you fall into the ‘old people’ category of DoSomething.org, (that’s anyone over 25!) but, you know a teen, know someone with a teen, teach teens, coach teens, have seen a teen in your neighbourhood or walk past a high school and think maybe teens hang out there… and you want to inspire teens to grow up and take over the world someday so they can fix all the problems old people have made (just kiddin’ (kinda) we old people have done lots of things right too!)…. here’s a place to find out what you can do!
Because no matter your age, even if you’re an old people, we can all make a difference!
Oh! And… before I forget — remember my promise yesterday to throw out one thing everyday throughout the year… well, I’ve created a page on my blog called: KISS my life! On it, I’ll be sharing that photo a day thing I said I’d do. and yes… I took a photo of today’s stack of bedding that’s going to the homeless shelter.
http://ayearofmakingadifference.com/kiss-my-life/

Another inspiring post! I’m so glad I’ve found your blog! And thanks for the share about DoSomething.org. I’m really enjoying visiting their site and getting enthused about all the great things they’re doing. I’ll see what I can do to help as an ‘old person’ 😉
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Thanks Gina — I know — as an ‘old person’ I gotta figure out what I can do too! 🙂
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i love the Do Something organization! it’s so great to take time & recognize the heroes that are all around us. 🙂
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I may not give to homeless shelters mostly because I don’t know of any in my area but I do give a lot of stuff away using Freecycle and I also donate clothes to the Salvos in their clothing bins. Oh yeah I also love to take puplic transport I find it very relaxing…………
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I think that’s what I enjoyed the most Joanne — the wind down and then the walk was lovely. And thank you for the Freecycle mention — I had forgotten about them!
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