Friendly Manitoba – Winnipeg Stepped Up!

Right after I had my daughter, I joined as many online support groups as I could. I felt the immediate panic of motherhood and wanted to enroll in full time support of some kind. I joined every parent group, single mother group and local community I could find. Many of the groups helped tremendously; both our local groups and groups such as the Single Mother by Choice forum. Over the past few weeks, I discovered the support I needed was to offer help. To serve others as best I could and to help myself through difficulty. I live in Manitoba and our license plates say ‘Friendly Manitoba’ on them. Are we friendly people? We absolutely are! We might not drive like it but we are! I have been lucky enough to be a part of a huge donation project and I will tell you, Winnipeg Stepped Up!

Winnipeg community

Winnipeg is a very community-based city. I’ve lived in a few other cities, including other countries, and I have always found friendly people wherever I go. I have never seen the community efforts and strength, however, which we have in Winnipeg. Communities come together in ways you cannot image. In my own life, a community of friends and family are constantly surrounding me and although I am a ‘single’ mother, I don’t feel alone in any way.

We never leave

Winnipeggers also tend to stick around. You’ll meet many who have lived here for their entire lives and their extended family is here as well. Maybe it’s the appealing weather. Maybe it’s our hockey team. Who knows. But we love it here. We really do.

One of the communities I am a part of is called Parents of Winnipeg & Surrounding Areas. I am also in the Parents of Winnipeg group, the Buy/Sell group, the Craft Fair group, the Fun Summer Activities group and of course, the Lost and Found group. The Parents of Winnipeg & Surrounding Areas group is very active and it was one of the first I joined. The conversations are typically polite, non-judgmental and helpful to anyone who reaches out. Admins of the group will do anonymous posts if requested and work hard to keep the parents in the group informed, positive and encouraging toward one another.

Winnipeg families in need

Over the last few months, I have been deeply impacted by the stories in the group. I’m not sure what changed; perhaps I just began paying more attention. People needed help. Help in ways that I didn’t have experience with offering. I heard stories of families looking for shelter, waiting months for an intake meeting about welfare and leaving abusive relationships only to be left living in a month-to-month hotel or on the street.

We have shelters and organizations that step in and help these families. Many organizations, in fact. But it is not enough. In Winnipeg, you cannot live on the street all year. You won’t survive without some form of shelter and assistance. It is life or death when the temperature drops to -40 and skin freezes in less than a minute.

How can I help Winnipeg?

One day I asked one of my trusted advisors, my chiropractor, what happens when people cannot get welfare, don’t have any social assistance and are left to struggle to obtain basic needs. He said that’s where community steps in. I told him a story I had read in the group and was deeply bothered by. It felt as if there were more parents with no help than people making it in Winnipeg. How could this be our city?

He discussed more about the intricacies of running shelters, the requirements to get a bed, the length of time to apply for welfare and some of the rationale behind our distribution of resources. Then he said again that it is community that fills in the gaps. There are gaps. Big ones. And that’s where we come in.

Immediate, impulsive and imperative action

In the next day or two, a post came up in that same online group. The Admin was organizing holiday hampers and requested help with either donations, putting hampers together or dropping them off. Then she asked that all families who hoped for a hamper send their name and number/age of children. It was around this time that my heart officially began to break as I watched fifty, then one hundred and then well over two hundred families request help for their children this holiday season. I decided if I didn’t help in some way, I would not recover.

As the list of names lengthened, I felt more compelled to do something. I was in the middle of preparing a book for publication and wondered if I had time to commit to another endeavor. Why would I even ask myself that? Is there really a comparison between a book release and choosing to help others who are in desperate need of it? The book can wait. Everything can wait. These families cannot. I decided to let myself fall behind on the book preparation and focus my energy on hamper helping.

Head out of ego. Life on the back-burner

Once I removed my head from my ego, I decided that I would drive around Winnipeg all day on a Sunday and pick up donations from anyone. I posted a message on my Facebook wall, somewhat impulsively, and encouraged people to send me their address if they wanted a pick up. I posted it at about 6:50am. Because that’s when I make all my big decisions.

*coffee*

What happened next was one of the most spectacular events that I have ever involuntary become the Program Director of. My Sunday plan was about to expand into Hamper Happiness, Hope and Hysteria. Winnipeg stepped up, big time. I really should have known it would happen. But I didn’t which made the following week even more fun.

After posting my friendly invitation for donations, I went about my regular day. I went online again that evening after my daughter went to sleep and discovered I was, without a doubt, the most popular person on Facebook in the entire world ever. Facebook fame. Dreams really do come true. I had dozens of inbox messages, people e-transferring money, a full day of pick-ups requested and a full week of drop-offs requested. I took a deep breath and realized everything was about to be put on hold because I had one week to orchestrate the most massive hamper drive I have ever been a part of.

Friendly kids, Winnipeg wins

The day before my Sunday Funday city-wide journey, I needed to spend e-transferred donations on toys and clothing. I had requested a list of what was needed and had a good handle on what to buy, however, I didn’t know how to efficiently spend over $500 on toys and have an equal distribution of fun for all children. My awareness of fun extended to Slime. That was a thing. But aside from that, I wasn’t sure what was cool anymore. Utilizing my knowledge of logistics and strategic decision-making, I enlisted two five year olds as my assistants (my friend’s lovely twin girls). Nobody knows cool like a five year old knows cool.

We went to a toy store and we gave each of them a cart. They received instructions about price range, type of gifts we needed, things to avoid and guidance on how many of each to purchase. They listened to the instructions and were off on their mission. I told them to buy as many toys as they could and they stepped up. Young, generous and philanthropic five year olds. It was a wild success. One of them was always making sure my toddler didn’t escape and truly, I couldn’t have done it without the help of these kids. They must have great parents!

Sunday of success

The next day was Sunday Funday! A friend offered to help me with pick-ups and I definitely needed it. We set out in the late morning, toddler in tow, and took a long tour of the city of Winnipeg. We drove through a field and down dirt roads as he continued reassuring me that the Google Map said to do this.

Discoveries were made; houses that I truly did not know existed in Winnipeg appeared out of nowhere. Mansions in fields. It was amazing. We drove from the west end, to the south to the north end of Winnipeg. After a full day of alternating who gets out of the car and who stays warm with the kid, we made it back to my condo with a very full car and a case of locally crafted beer. A job well done. Cheers.

Filtered messages and friendliness plans

After my Saturday journey of toy fun and my Sunday tour of Winnipeg, things really took off. A few friends of mine shared my post, put it in community groups and got others involved. Dozens of people contacted me; many of which I didn’t know. I discovered my message application has a ‘filtered’ message location and it was a shocking, momentarily terrifying revelation when I discovered the enormous amount of people who had contacted me (but I did not know so I didn’t see their message). Holy shit. Holy. Shit. That began phase 2 of the Friendly Manitoba plan. I called it ‘Everyone Come Over’.

I had created a schedule for myself the day before (pick-up day) and a plan for dropping off the donations to the organizers. I had not made a plan for the friendliness. The friendliness was unexpected. It was astounding. I decided the best course of action, in order to get as many donations as possible, was to post an update every day and to give out my garage code to all of Winnipeg. So that is what I did.

Garage of happiness

Every day after work, I arrived to a holiday delight of happiness and generosity. I was so excited to get home from work and see my garage. I met people during the day and we did car exchanges of donations, I picked up a few more donations and received more e-transfers that would go toward food. People went shopping and dropped off bags and bags of groceries. Toys filled my basement. It was Disney World. It was Happy Land. Maybe you could call it an unfinished basement of glory.

Every member of my family contributed, my colleagues and friends had their children participate and choose donations (that touched me right in the heart); I even had people I don’t know come to my garage and drop off such generous things. One of my friends brought over a turkey. I didn’t even know how to store it (yes, I am that bad at cooking) so I asked her if I should bury it in the snow. She advised on a better storage location.

Hamper Drive of Crazy Awesome

As more and more items came, I began to panic about the final stage of Hamper Drive of Crazy Awesome. That was drop-off. There was no possible way I could get everything to the drop spot and I knew I had to carry it back up my stairs on the day of and somehow ensure both my baby and dog didn’t touch it. I remembered the days when I coached cheerleading and used to organize huge events, like competitions and awards banquets. I used the same approach and created a fleet. A fleet of helpers. Again, Winnipeg stepped it up.

I gave everyone a pick-up time at my condo and spent the morning moving things up my stairs while the baby napped. It was the hardest, quietest workout of my life. Clothing was removed with every round of stairs I did until I finished in a sports bra and a pair of yoga shorts, 3 litres of water later.

Winnipeg stepped up

I had about thirty minutes before pick-up time and I was on a tight schedule due to a 3pm Winnipeg Jets game. About five minutes before my designed pick-up time, the full fleet of vehicles arrived. A friend with a huge truck, a colleague with her whole family, my dad came post-hockey, my close friend and people I didn’t know but were my newest besties by the end. Everyone had their designated drop point arranged and once loaded up, they were off. One of my friends sent me an ‘on the way’ text six minutes after the pick-up time. Six minutes. Everything had been loaded and was out. Her new role was to come over, give me a hug and go home. She did great.

I loaded my car with the last of the donations (plus kid, left the dog) and drove toward our drop stop. When I arrived, unloading was nearly finished. I unloaded my vehicle and helped lift a few more boxes into a storage room. Within twenty minutes, the entire operation was finished. From condo to drop-off. It was absolutely incredible!

Two amazing Winnipeggers

The two organizers of the event, Diana and Ryan, have dedicated so much of their time, money, energy and effort to this hamper drive and they do every year. As I left Ryan with a staggering amount of donations to organize, I felt a mix of happiness and resignation.

I looked at everything we had accomplished and felt so touched and grateful by what had happened. I was barely a part of it; only a catalyst that brought an enormous number of generous people together. There was no judgment, no questions about who the families were; there was simply a desire to help. A huge desire and I cannot believe the effort put forth by fellow Winnipeggers to support the initiative. People drove in from outside Winnipeg just to drop off food in my garage. It was inspiring, to say the least.

Help more. And more

My feeling of resignation is, I believe, a reflection of my desire to have helped everyone. The hamper drive is currently ongoing and the draw is on December 6th, 2019. My greatest wish is that this article about the generosity of Winnipeggers will inspire more people to donate. The families in this hamper draw are ones who do not receive from another charity or organization. To help is to be human.

I hope that we all continue to help. Today. Tomorrow. Always.

As beautiful and wonderful as the holiday season can be, it is also a very challenging time for many people. It may amplify disparity, broken families, low income living and impact mental health. I believe most people have a mixed relationship with the holidays. Each year I do a meditation about peace for all sentient beings, along with my entire meditation school, at a particular time on Christmas Eve. We all light a candle and connect to a global event where the World Peace Flame Candle is lit.

Peace, generosity and community

Peace, generosity and community are big elements of the holiday season and as I have learned from this experience, engaging in activities that support peace, generosity and community is a wonderful way to take action. To operationalize a helping plan. I cannot take any credit for the generosity that was shown; Winnipeg stepped up and I am lucky to have been a part of it. It was inspiring, exciting and gave me a new holiday focus. Since I didn’t expect the response I received, everything that I had planned or thought I had planned was put on hold (or I forgot about). And that was wonderful. It took me out of my life, out of my ego, out of my entire story and offered me the most inspiration week of connection, communication and love. It was a gift.

Friendly Manitoba for the win

I want to acknowledge Diana for organizing this amazing endeavor. I want to thank Ryan for staying in contact with me, setting up my drop spot, sorting through a mountain of toys, clothes and non-perishables, and meeting us to help with unloading.

Thank you so much to each and every person who helped me with the hamper drive.

Thank you Winnipeg

If you wish to donate to this hamper drive, please contact the Admins of the Parents of Winnipeg & Surrounding Areas Facebook group. If you need a hamper this year, you can sign up for the draw anytime between today and December 5^th.

Help if you can give it.  Accept help if you need it.