Words and Deeds

Holy moly it’s been a while! Life has been crazy busy up here in the good ol’ TO.  Work has been a bit busy and is about to get even more crazy…

Almost two weeks ago was Free the Children’s Youth in Action Summit where hundreds of youth voluntarily give up their Saturday to come and learn about social issues. I have heard some people refer to this day as “the heart of the organization” along with our summer Take Action Academy. It’s a day full of workshops, guest speakers, and most importantly, 500 inspiring youth voices. Yesterday’s Summit theme was “Free from” to go along with our “Five Days of Freedom Campaign”. Youth attended workshops throughout the day based on freedom from poverty, freedom from exploitation, freedom from disease, and freedom from thirst. Amber and I had the chance to be MCs for the day and I even introduced our afternoon speaker… my mentor and friend, Dr. Jonathan White!

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was for the opportunity to introduce Jonathan. As I told the youth in the crowd, I never knew about social issues or my capabilities when I was younger, and for that I am truly jealous of them. However, I did learn about these issues when I entered University, and I slowly learned what I was capable of – all thanks to the guidance of Jonathan. When I got the chance to introduce him, I told the crowd that this was the part of the day I was looking most forward to. I asked everyone who had a mentor or a teacher that inspires them to raise their hand… Almost every hand went up! I was truthfully surprised by this because I didn’t even know what a mentor was in high school, and these kids were from middle school and high school! The day ended with an incredible speech by Jonathan which continued to captivate the kids for the rest of the afternoon.

The week continued with speeches per usual and at one of them I was greeted by 25 middle school kids dressed ridiculously as crowd pumpers… it was awesome! When the weekend finally came, the girls and I could not be more excited because Sunday was… Toronto’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade!! Now, I’ll be fair and say it is not the same as the Southie Parade… but it was much bigger and people weren’t drunk! It took a little over an hour for the whole parade to make its way past us, but it was such a great day! We took the afternoon and grabbed a drink at a local Irish pub and called it a day.

This week is March break (equivalent to our schools’ February vacation) so I don’t have any speeches booked and Adam is coming to visit on Saturday for the weekend. Next week I have six speeches including a charity gala on Saturday! The following two weeks will be hectic with lots of speeches in the Waterloo region so we can do outreach and get them involved. It is going to be really busy but I know by the end it will be worth it considering this region hasn’t really had the chance to be involved and now they will.

I came home on lunch today to a card from my grandmother. In this card was a piece of paper with six poems photocopied to it. There was a note on the bottom that explained these poems were written by my grandfather’s mother for her own column in The Brockton Enterprise called the “Cousin Mary Page”… one was even dated back to the 1930’s. Here’s a taste of one:

"Words and Deeds"

If you think a kind deed to do,

But have not courage to do it,

That cannot help others, or you

If you but only knew it.

If a kind word or helpful thought

Ever comes into your mind,

If you don't do with it what you ought,

And use it, are you kind?

So let's brace up and put to use

Any helpful word or deed

For it was put in our mind to use,

In this old world of need."

-Mrs. Irene R. Wilbur

Until we meet again,

Bria

Weird Canadian habit: They dip their french fries in mayonnaise.