Don't Forget About Slave Lake!

"In all the years I've been doing this job, I haven't seen anything with this kind of speed and devastation."
- Len MacCharles, incident commander

"When you first see the devastation, it's a numbing feeling. It's going to take some time to get our community back."
- Slave Lake Mayor Pillay-Kinee

As we hear less and less in the traditional media about the efforts ongoing in Slave Lake, Alberta, I wanted to remind everyone that much help is still needed there. The Canadian Red Cross has committed to the recovery process for the next two years and you can help fund that support for the residents of Slave Lake with a financial donation (some agency's will continue to take material donations as well).

On May 15th 2011 a wildfire, fueled by winds of up to 150km, burned through the northern town of Slave Lake, destroying 40% of the town. 374 homes were destroyed and another 52 were damaged. The province declared a level four emergency – the highest on its scale - and more than 7000 people fled in an immediate evacuation, leaving everything behind. After 10 days some people were allowed to come back, but many still can not.

A month after the fire there is still much work to be done in Slave Lake. The Red Cross is still registering people and last I heard there were 200 families that the town had not yet re-connected with. Thank you for keeping Slave Lake in your thoughts as the recovery process continues.

Santa's Anonymous

We had a blast volunteering at the 630CHED Santa's Anonymous Warehouse for the Wrapping Tweetup on Friday evening.

We were "bagging" (there is also shopping/wrapping roles) so the process for us was to pick a tag for a family that shows just the ages and sex of each child in it. Then you go through the bins to select the wrapped gift packages for each child listed on the tag (the gifts are separated by age group and gender), creating a package for the family and putting it all together in a big black plastic bag. I tried to pick packages that were basically the same size so there won't be much room for jealousy on Christmas morning between siblings. This year we decided to create packages for the families that were in our area of Edmonton.


As a parent my favourite part of Christmas is Christmas morning - watching my children coming down the stairs with wide eyed wonder at the surprises that have appeared under the Christmas tree. We always have one of the kids call out the names on each gift and deliver it to each person and then we take turns opening so everyone can watch and enjoy. This ritual has always been enjoyable and wonderful for all, regardless of the amount of gifts present from year to year. I can't imagine Christmas morning without at least something under the tree for the kids so I'm very happy to support and volunteer for Santa's Anonymous. Every kid should have something to unwrap under the tree.


If you'd like to spend a couple of hours doing the same thing the warehouse could always use volunteers. Drop in days are Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am - 9pm. You can read more about it HERE.

Edmonton's Santas Anonymous

If you are looking for a really cool (and fulfilling) volunteer experience this Christmas season in the Edmonton area then I would like to point you in the direction of one of my favourites - Santa's Anonymous, a local organization that makes it possible for all Edmonton kids to receive something on Christmas morning.

The warehouse is open 9am to 9pm for volunteers (to wrap gifts or receive toy donations) and you don't even need to schedule an actual time as you can drop in on any Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday that you have some free time. 

The volunteer roles at the warehouse are restricted to people 16 years of age and older (due to liability issues). However all ages are able to volunteer on the days that the presents are delivered, which is often touted as a "great event for families to volunteer together" and is "often the most rewarding and eye opening experience for children to be involved in."

If you haven't heard it yet you should LISTEN to Jerry Forbes' "And a Creature was Stirring."  

You can check out the various volunteer roles available HERE to find something that appeals to you. Contact the crew at Santas Anonymous with any questions and download the forms needed to volunteer HERE. Additionally, you can support Santas Anonymous by donating toys for Edmonton area children - a simple act that makes all this possible.

If you would like to apply to receive toys for your children this year you can do so through the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton.

Send Just Five More Hugs!

As the Edmonton Food Bank nears it's goal of 7500 virtual hugs (that Kraft will turn into 7500 jars of Peanut Butter) I just wanted to ask everyone to please take a minute to send 5, 10, or 15 hugs to aid this process along. Anyone can send hugs, residency doesn't matter.

Send a Bear Hug Now!

To track the progress as the hugs add up, click this link HERE. The Edmonton Food Bank has until this Friday to meet it's goal.

And thank you.

Help Spread the Feeling

This week in Edmonton KRAFT Peanut Butter is gearing up to stock the shelves of the Edmonton Food Bank and you can help!

For every virtual Bear Hug you send (via email), KRAFT will donate a 500g jar of Peanut Butter to Edmonton's Food Bank. You don't have to do anything else. You don't even have to live in Edmonton!

Send a Bear Hug Now!

Edmontonians have already started sending their virtual hugs and have until Friday August 13th to send more! At the time of writing this the total was at 2649 jars!

Edmonton’s goal is 7,500 hugs (that's a lot of peanut butter). You can keep an eye on the progress HERE.

For those that prefer a more hands on approach, the Kraft bears Smoothie and Crunchie will be giving out bear hugs at West Edmonton Mall this Saturday (August 14) near the Ice Palace from 11am to 4pm. Just like the emails, for each hug Kraft will donate a jar of peanut butter to Edmonton’s Food Bank.

Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Today this song is running through my head like my theme song.

I'm heading back to the Food Bank today with my kids to volunteer. I'm both excited and looking forward to it. A lot of really good people work really hard under that roof to help a lot of people. Everyone's motivations for working there are different but they are all genuine and pure. For me it's nice to be in a caring environment for a change. And I really like how happy they are to see me.

And while the circumstances of my having free time at this point aren't optimal, I'm starting to feel like the universe really does have my best interests at heart with it's small and seeming strange twists of fate recently. I'm going with the flow and we'll see where the current takes me!

My wish for a happy Friday for everyone is that they see a place of value for them in their lives - have a great weekend!

The Story of an Idea

We watched this short video tonight at our Red Cross Disaster Management course. It describes the origin story of the Red Cross movement and the birth of the Geneva Conventions.

When I was in the army we studied military law, the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law - basically the rules of war - from a vastly different (but surprisingly similar) viewpoint than I study it now. Human nature has demanded this body of law evolve (sometimes in leaps and bounds, like after the second world war) because of the new and interesting ways we increasingly find to hurt each other... There is an inherent inhumanity within our humanity, one can not exist meaningfully without the other.

This is both a familiar and unfamiliar place for me. Perhaps it is only my perceived role that has changed within this scenario - to go from a soldier actor to a neutral actor, but it feels like I have come full circle.

Albert Schweitzer (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) said "When Humanity finally learns to control the elements, when the winds will be quiet and the earth can not be torn apart, when there will be no loneliness, no destitution, no war; when the last hungry man, woman or child is fed, only then will there be no need for the Red Cross."

Humanity. Inhumanity. My struggle has always been to find the appropriate balance. You can't have one without the other.