WEEK 39

On december 20th Paige and I had the task of giving during the holiday season this past week. Easy as it may sound, it is difficult to actually have anyone under the age of 16 become a full fledged, legitimate volunteer. I thought it would be so easy to go to a soup kitchen or hand out meals to the homeless through a McMaster University program or volunteer our time at the Salvation Army for the night-- but hit brick walls at every request. I really didn't realize how difficult it is to volunteer. They even wanted to do a police check on me!! And anyone Paige's age...well you may as well forget about it. So..back to the drawing board we went. Looking back, I was just thinking to big. It is really just the everyday people and things that can sometimes benefit from a strangers act of kindness. I realized that there are so many people in our communities that don't find Christmas to be a happy time. In fact, it can be one of the loneliest times for some. Thats when the idea hit me....I thought it would be fun for Paige and I to bake some gingerbread cookies and bring them to the residents at my nana's nursing home. I remember my nana telling me that some of those people don't even have one visitor all year. When I threw the idea at Paige she was all over it. So we headed back to my house, baked our amazing homemade cookies; decorated them with these really cool edible markers and packed them up for our trip to the nursing home. On our way there Paige was eager to make sure that we were going to be able to actually hand out the cookies to each of the residents. She is so cute. We arrived at about 730 pm and approximately 3/4 of the residents were already in bed!! LOL!! The nurse gave us the 'a- ok' to go into the rooms and give each resident a cookie. Most of them were hard of hearing so here we are yelling at them 'we hope you have a Merry Christmas' and leaving them the cookies. It was really pretty funny. But you know what? You should have seen how their eyes lit up at the sight of Paige and then when they knew they were getting the cookie...it was priceless. And not to brag or anything...but those cookies were pretty darn fantastic. After we left I wanted to let Paige know what an amazing thing she did for those people. She brought some warmth into that nursing home that evening. It really was in the true spirit of Christmas and we both left with that little 'warm fuzzy' feeling!!

XOX Jo

Week 38

On December 3rd, the Gauthier's and Paige went to Wellington Church downtown Burlington to prepare a dinner. There were lots of helpers to prepare a meal for about 100 people. Paige was busy trying out all the possible jobs. The kids must have peeled about 200 carrots and cut about 500 green beans. Paige also helped make juice for the kids who come in. The church also takes gently used clothing items, so Paige helped organize the clothing to lay them out for the people coming in to help them find some warm clothing for the winter months. We also had to set the tables for the 100 coming in. People come from all over Burlington to enjoy a free hot meal. It was such an amazing feeling to put in just a couple hours of volunteer work to see so many happy, grateful people. The church band filled with teenagers also came in and sang Christmas songs during the dinner hours. The atmosphere was awesome!! It was a fabulous night, and I think a wonderful experience for all of us. We have decided to make this a monthly event for my family, and of course Paige whenever she can join us!!

Shelley

WEEK 37

Week 37 Food Donation
Paige and I decided to find a food drop off in preparation for those in need at Christmas time.
So, off to Fortino’s to shop!! We bought pasta, tomato sauce, canned vegetables, soup, baby food, crackers, cereal, canned tuna salmon and chicken, snacks and a HUGE bag of rice. This was another of Paiges’ wicked ideas!! The great thing about the food drop at Fortino’s is that the food is distributed to those in our community. So great to give a hand to people who live in our own neighbourhood!
Paiges’ constant awareness of what others may need is an inspiration to me....love this kid!!
Again, GO PAIGE GO!!!
Susie