When it comes to giving – whether donating money, gifts or volunteer time to meet an important need – the Sunshine Coast community continues to demonstrate a unique richness.
This week, for instance, we learned that the community has been quietly assisting the homeless shelter at the St. Hilda’s annex in Sechelt by providing meals for 20 since the shelter reopened on Oct. 15. Using a website called www.takethemeal.com, donors enter the word “shelter” for the recipient and “Sechelt” as the password and then choose a date to provide the meal. As of Thursday morning, virtually the entire month of November had been filled up. Generous individuals – and one service club – have each committed to a particular day to bring a particular meal, ranging from barbecue chicken to turkey chili to Moroccan stew.
There’s no fanfare about it, just hardworking, caring people doing what needs to be done to help the less fortunate.
This generosity also extends to our non-human neighbours. Three weeks ago, the Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre launched a fundraising campaign to create a new space for animals that have been cared for in the home of Clint and Irene Davy, who operate the non-profit centre. The goal was to bring in $25,000. Jane Orrom, manager of the campaign, calls the response “incredible.”
“With both online and offline donations now totalling $17,285, we are beginning to believe that we may not only reach our goal of $25,000, but could perhaps exceed it!” Orrom writes. “We still have two months to go until our deadline of Dec. 31, and should we actually exceed that once only dreamed of goal, with any extra funds, we will be able to equip our new facility not only with new cages, but with kitchen, laundry and feed storage units. This will make it a truly dedicated building for the rehabilitation unit and enable Clint and Irene Davy to make their house their home once again.”
We could go on listing other examples of the kindness of Coasters, but we refer you instead to Jan DeGrass’s story this week on the front page of our Community section, where Jan reports on the Oct. 28 Celebration of Excellence. On this special night, the Volunteer Centre honoured 18 recipients in seven categories of service. With group projects making up three of the recipients, a total of 55 people were honoured.
These folks are the tip of iceberg.
We are indeed lucky to be living on the Sunshine Coast.
