THE 52nd WEEK - FINAL CHAPTER

We did it, Congratulations Paige! You should be so proud of yourself for finishing an enormous task and also to be such a great sport through the whole thing.

This week was the final week and instead of migrating to the community for giving; Paige wanted to throw a party for the group of people who pitched in to lend their time and help finish what Paige and Mer started.

It was so thoughtful and cute to see Paige set up for this event. Being held on October 29th (a date that meant so much to all of us) and kept everyones mind off what had happened 18months prior.

All the kids dressed up in Halloween costumes. Paige also wanted to have decorations and lots of food for everyone; so that's what we did. Shelley went out and bought the decorations and everyone who came brought an appetizer. She sure can delegate...She also made hand written invitations; very cute.

In attendance - everyone who helped out with a week was there; knowing the busy world we live in, it was clear this was important to everyone. Paige's Grandma, Papa and Aunt Jenn also came for the festivities.

This whole experience was an eye opener for everyone; we all realized that if you put a bit of effort in to something...anything is possible. It doesn't stop here just because the 52nd week is complete...it's just the beginning Paigee.

Thanks for being a trooper throughout this. What was to take 1 year; took us 2! Another thing it shows you; never give up! I know this experience will enhance your values positively that you can dip into throughout your long life ahead!

Xo

All the girls

WEEK 51!!

I had heard about a local charity in Burlington called ‘Sew on Fire’ which sounded interesting so I looked into it. This is a Burlington based charity/ministry that has volunteers across Canada sew cloth bags, quilts, blankets, t-shirts, baby overalls, ladies knit mittens. These gifts and homemade cloth bags are filled with essential items and sent to orphanages, hospitals, widows living on the streets, young single moms, children living in garbage dumps, refugees and the poor. Last year they sent approximately 20,000 bags to those in need all over the world and right in our own community. I thought this was so great!

So, Paige and I went out and bought some items to be put in the cloth bags; baby needs (blankets, wipes and clothes, soothers, q-tips, rattles, diaper pins, small toys, baby powder), pencils, pens, stuffed animals, candy, shampoo, soap, deodorant, wash clothes and towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste .

We dropped the stuff off to the SEW ON FIRE warehouse which is on Fraser Dr. We met with Wendy who was the person responsible for spearheading this operation. She started it in her home and soon needed more space. They are now in a warehouse full of things that will be packed and sent off. Paige and I were amazed at the time and effort that Wendy and her volunteers put in to make this happen. So awesome!!! They are always in need of items and your time sew together the bags and to stuff them with goodies. If you are ever interested in volunteering, have a look at what they are all about:

www.sewonfire.com

Thanks again to Wendy for showing us around and educating us!!

Another great day with Paige. Love her!!

Susie

Week 50

Melanie and Stephanie decided to do Paige's giving this week together. Melanie came up with a great idea to do a halloween craft with Paige that we could give to some special people in the community. A random act of kindness. The craft Melanie came up with was taking kleenex and putting it over a lollipop with a tie around it to keep it in place. Then Paige drew ghost faces on all of them. To do this we went to Local's and sat at a booth for dinner and pondered as we did the crafts who would we give these cool (and yummy) crafts to. It was a toss up between the nurses in the Pediatric ward or the firefighters. We asked Paige to choose and when she couldn't decide Stephanie decided the firefighters were a great choice! So once we were done the crafts, eating and applying our make-up we headed to Tim Horton's. We grabbed coffee and timbits for our hard working firefighters. We got a pack of 40 timbits but ended up giving 34 because Paige needed to test them on the way there to make sure they were ok for them to eat. Once we arrived the guys were touched and overwhelmed by the kindness. Paige explained what she had been doing and then took a picture with couple of the guys by the truck. Once Mel and I finished handing out our phone numbers we left feeling pretty good and Paige got a cool bag of activities from the guys.

Xo Mel and Steph

Week 49

Books, books and more books!! I had recently heard about our
Church having their annual Mistletoe Mart on November 12th and
thought that would be a perfect idea for another one of Paige’s weeks of
giving. I started sorting books and collecting from others and in no time we
had a complete children’s library…

Paige and Jordan and Kate were very excited to go to the
church to donate the books for the sale. Paige carried the BIG bag and off we
went to find someone in the church to talk to. It is always quiet in a church,
but extremely quiet on a Saturday morning. We were pleasantly surprised to find
one of the ministers and another gentleman to greet us and accept our donation
of books. Paige and I explained what we were doing there and they were more
than happy to have us there and opened up the church library to us. We
continued to chat about how the earnings from the books would help the church
with such things as the library and their various children’s programs. They
were kind enough to let the girls sign out a book from the library to take home
and read…it took them forever to decide which book to take! Then they found
their way to the stage upstairs where Paige and Jordan have their Summer camp
production and they danced around and shared some giggles. Even the minister
shared a giggle or two.

After meeting the minister I learned that he had known my
Grandmother who had just passed away and he shared some wonderful stories of her
with me. What a small world.

With the kids looking through ALL the books, the stories
shared and the memories made, we all left there with a little more warmth on our
hearts. Thanks Paige for another lesson in giving!

Kelly Hassard

Week 48

Last night at the Community dinner, Paige, Jack, Emma and I offered to run a craft station at the church. So I went and got lots of different Halloween craft items and the kids organized the tables and helped run the station. This dinner was a Thanksgiving dinner for the guests who came. Over 130 guest were provided with a warm nutritious Thanksgiving meal. Of that 130, 48 of them were children. The families arrive early to get a seat at a table, dinner is served at about 6:30 and some families arrived at 5:00. So that's where our job came in. We invited the children to come and make Halloween crafts.

Some children need help with the crafts so Paige made sure they had the supplies they needed to make a creative craft. We had Halloween masks, foam pumpkins and ghosts to decorate, Halloween colouring pages, foam stickers, etc. We kept them nice and busy until dinner was ready to be served.

Before we left we listened to the blessings, they opened up the microphone and invited guests and volunteers to say what they were thankful for. It was great to see Paige, Jack, and Emma listen to these blessings and realize just how lucky we all are to have each other. Driving home made for some interesting conversation. I'm sure when a warm turkey dinner is served for Paige this weekend she will have some wonderful things to be thankful for.

We are very thankful to have spent amazing times with Paige working on these 52 weeks of giving. xoxo Paige

Week 47

It's hard to believe that we are almost nearing the end of this giving journey. It's sad in a weird way but is so amazing at the same time.

In Week 47 Paige, Anderson, Kamryn and I went through 6 large garbage bags of clothes to give to those not as fortunate as us. We had the good clothes pile and the ratty clothes pile. Not sure if ratty is a word but this day it had a great deal of meaning. The ratty clothes were thrown out and all the others were given to kids who need it and may only have 2 or 3 sets of outfits. I really made them think about what to keep and throw away. Which in turn brought up some great discussions. Paige kept asking "maybe we can keep this shirt for Peyton or maybe this jacket will fit Peyton next year" and I would say yes but Peyton has so much already, don't you think it would be nice to give it to a girl who doesn't have anything and of course her reply was Yes that would be really nice of us. It started to really make sense to her. There was a couple of items that she made sure stayed in our house to give to Peyton. Love it!

In the end we had 4 bags to give away. What made me laugh was the game we made of it. They (we) were having so much fun and wanted more when we were done. Not like if I was to do it by myself...we all learned something today!

Thanks Paige

xo Kristen

Week 46

We had such a fun day today filled with a lemonade stand and good laughs with friends. Paige learned a great deal too; its hard work to make money but worth it once you see the results of your work and that giving to others who are in need feels good. We had a crew of girls out to help raise money for Sick Kids. There was Taylor, Kenzi, Jordan, Kate, Anderson, Kamryn and Peyton. This was the foundation that Paige and the girls could relate to. We started by making the signs and bringing the tables and chairs up from the basement, then we stacked the cups and got an ice bucket for the lemonade. Everyone needed ice with their lemonade...that was Paige's idea. Lastly we decided to also offer popcorn. I think mainly because they all wanted to eat some.

We got started and it wasn't very busy...let me just say it was drizzling rain which didn't make for lots of people outside. That didn't bother us though, we just decided to knock on doors and tell them about it. It was so funny to watch them run from house to house. They were little negotiators by saying they would bring them the lemonade if they bought it. How smart is that. Anderson was telling people it cost $50 instead of $.50.

In the end the girls made over $40 and were more than happy to donate it to charity. We went to get our nails done later and I knew they learned something when they were telling people about the charity. I was so proud and I know Mer would be too.

Thanks Paige for teaching me so much today too! xo Kristen