On Sunday night, discussions started amongst members and Jo about helping out the community of Slave Lake, which has been devastated by wild fire. This community has lost their homes, vehicles, jobs, everything and I can only imagine their hope at this point. Jo created a Facebook event for a donations drive at the gym to help with relief efforts and at 9am Monday morning, donations started to roll in.
The support of members alone was amazing, having the back half of the gym almost full by noon. Members came into the gym on their lunch breaks to help sort the donations and word was spreading quickly via social media that JDFT was "THE" drop off spot for donations. Donations are being accepted at MANY locations throughout Central Alberta but JDFT seems to be the HUB of all of these donations. Big 105, one of the local radio stations brought their convoy of donations to us to be sorted and we were overwhelmed by support. It's not just support for the community of Slave Lake that's been amazing but also with how the City of Red Deer has embraced JDFT and allowed us to step up and help out.
We were overwhelmed by the support we received from local businesses; businesses stopping by to offer their services, and even delivering some much needed pizza to our hard working volunteers. I must admit, I've also been underwhelmed by the lack of support shown by some businesses but we're managing just fine without them and their support. I believe that there's a little thing called Karma that they should look out for.
Most of this probably sounds like the typical relief efforts for any disaster anywhere in the world, so what makes our community different? In no other community have I seen people drop absolutely everything or take a week off from work just to help out. Nor have I seen the kids, 4 & 5 year olds avoiding the playroom so they can help load a U-Haul and crying when they can't find enough stuff to fill a box fast enough. My husband came home from working an 8 hour day to come back to the gym and work another almost 8 hours because he felt it was his responsibility to help out wherever possible. He jumped into recycle bins hunting for boxes, he drove with our kids in the van to a storage location to unload the trailers and came back to help load the U-Haul until nearly midnight while our kids slept in their car seats. I don't think this makes me a bad parent, I'm teaching my children to help others and they woke up this morning with my 4 year old asking if we could go back to the gym and do some more team work.
I completely believe that Jo and her team want us all to "be the change you want to see in the world". She has given us every opportunity to do so, now it's time for all of us, members or not, local or not to step up and make a difference in the lives of others. If you can't help out with this cause, then find another way to do something to help someone. Just do something! I challenge you!
"You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter."
~ Nicholas Sparks
