Guest of Author! Ryan DeLong – Pay it Forward Winnipeg

Paying it forward. A Guest Author on Translate Reality. Welcome Ryan!

Today’s Guest of Author is the founder of Pay it Forward Winnipeg, Ryan DeLong. Ryan began a movement of contribution and generosity, and was kind enough to share my article on my Granola Bar Practice on his page. His work inspired me. Pay it Forward Winnipeg has helped so many people; I am honoured to welcome him to Translate Reality.

So. How did this all begin? What is paying it forward?

“My name is Ryan DeLong and I’m a massive Winnipeg Jets fan. In November 2017, I bought a pair of tickets to a Jets game. I have a group of six really good buddies and I asked them all if they wanted to go, via group chat. They tend to give me a hard time so they started bidding on the ticket, starting at a nickel. The bidding ended at around eight cents after I eventually got annoyed and said “fine, I’m going to give the ticket away to a stranger instead”. What started off as a joke turned into something incredible.

I decided to post the ticket on Kijiji for free; I was happy to have a stranger come with me! The catch was that they had to explain WHY they deserved it. I received about 100 messages in just a few days. They were mainly single mothers that couldn’t afford a night out along with many other touching stories. And then, I received this message.

Paying it Forward. A compelling story.

‘I’m sending you this not for myself but on behalf of my friend Leslie. She is 37, is an amazing single mom to an 11 year old girl and for the last year she has been fighting non Hodgkin’s lymphoma and breast cancer.
This is her second bout with cancer. During all of this, the person she always considered her very best friend, who was always there for her, was the godparent to her child and she, the godparent to her kids, completely stopped talking to her. It’s kind of broken her.

She is deserving of this night out. She is so strong. She has fought this fight with everything inside of her, determined to be here for her daughters life.
She is the strongest person I know. She’s the most positive person I know.
Please choose Leslie.’

Paying it forward and touching the heart

I was immediately in tears. I had already narrowed it down to ten possible recipients but this girl stole my heart. My mother Corinne passed away from breast cancer when she was only 51 and this story hit home. She was the one I was going to take. I contacted Leslie and thankfully she felt healthy enough to go. She had no idea who “nominated” her. The media caught wind of the story. Tons of people from the community contacted me to donate money for food at the game, a jersey for Leslie, and two tickets to give to the individual who nominated Leslie. I decided that when I met Leslie for the very first time, in the concourse at the game, I would unveil the woman who had nominated her; Jaimie. It was a tearful moment and the three of us plus Jaimie’s boyfriend went for some food before the game. The JETS caught wind of the story and because it was Hockey Fights Cancer month, decided to present Leslie and I will jerseys on the big screen at the game.

I decided to keep the ball rolling.

As a kid, I was obsessed with a movie called Pay It Forward. A teacher gives his class an assignment on the first day of school to change the world. And one middle school kid took it very seriously and decided that if he did one huge gesture to three people in need, told them to return the favour to three other people, the chain reaction could lead to a utopian world. One that we all deserve. (Dammit, I’m tearing up writing this).

So I created the Pay it Forward Winnipeg page”

Select the link above to visit the Facebook page and check out the Pay it Forward Instagram page!

Thank you Ryan for being a Guest of Author!