A Touch of Kindness

I thought about this topic all week as I sat on my various planes, taxi’s and airport lounges during my west coast swing.   This week I ventured out to Los Angeles then up to Seattle before making my way to Vancouver and now heading home.   So this week I’m writing my blog form the airport lounge in Vancouver as I wait for my red eye flight back to Toronto…glamorous some would say, but after 14 hours on planes this week plus being stuck in the middle row for my flight later tonight (5.5 hours) I’d just like to dispel that myth!

Anyway, this week I was reminiscing back to when I was raising money for my hike in Papua New Guinea last November.  Initially when I had the idea of raising money in dad’s memory for Cancer Research I thought that if I was able to raise $5000 – what a great idea I thought!   Dispatch two birds with one stone, as I’d always wanted to hike the Kokoda Track and now I could piggy-back on this and raise money in dad’s memory.  

TW and Basil (the strongest man I've ever met) at Brigade Hill
Papua New Guinea - Nov 2011

When I approached the Canadian Cancer Society they were thrilled that I wanted to embark on this fundraising initiative and they helped me by providing a secure website so people could make taxable donations.   I have to tell you that the Canadian Cancer Society have really got it together, because within an hour I had a fully functioning website that I could personalize including my target goal, photos and most importantly my tribute to dad.   Very impressive!

At first I felt a little strange asking my friends and co-workers for donations, but many of them had heard of my dad’s passing and were extremely generous and willing to donate – in fact I was a little embarrassed that I actually was able to reach my initial (and now somewhat paltry) goal of $5000 within the first 24 hours!    Okay, can you say think bigger TW?

Next morning, Andrea my contact at the Canadian Cancer Society called me with the ecstatic news, even though I had been watching the gauge inch its way rather quickly toward my goal it was hard to fathom the generosity being bestowed upon my cause.   Interestingly enough only a very small portion of the people who I had emailed initially had donated to date so….   What to do?   She enquired if I wanted to raise the goal and see where we ended up. 

Why not I thought?   What is the worst thing that could happen – I could raise some more dollars for a very worthy cause; even though I may not reach the lofty goal of $10,000 it would be a heck of undertaking so I readily agreed.   Again within the hour they had increased my goal and over the course of the next week I watched with astonishment as the donations continued to literally flood in.  

What surprised me most was the broad range of donors.   During my initial email blast I had sent it out to all of my business associates and colleagues, both past and present including customers and clients that I had kept in touch with over the course of my rather long and winding career… :-)  in fact some I hadn’t spoke to in quite a while.

However there were two distinct donors that I stick in my mind more than the rest, all donations were gratefully accepted but these two were special in that they were from people who I didn’t know.

TW out on the Kokoda Track - one of the most isolated places
on the planet...  Papua New Guinea (Nov 2011)

I had sent my initial email and canvas email to an ex-client who was based in Washington DC, apparently he received it during a business meeting.   I guess he was half listening to the meeting and scanning my email at the same time, but it definitely hit a cord with him and he stopped the meeting and relayed the story of my quest and the story of my dad’s battle with Brain Cancer to the group who he was meeting with.   Literally within minutes I had a host of donations from him and his business colleagues many of which I knew – wow, the power of email and the Internet!

However, there was an email that I received later that day that I didn’t recognize the senders name when I saw it in my inbox.  It was from someone who was present at the meeting (actually a third party attendee), whom I didn’t know except that he had heard my story earlier that morning.  

He had gone to the website and made a sizeable donation because his sister had the same type of brain cancer and had died earlier in the year, in fact eerily close to when dad passed away but on the other side of the world.   It was a very emotional email and certainly brought a tear to my eye as I read and re-read it.  He went on to say that he wished he had the courage to do something like I was doing in his sisters memory and that he applauded my goal, and hoped that his donation could help in some small way. 

Clearly it was his way of doing something tangible and positive in his sister’s memory, and such a wonderful gesture considering I didn’t know him.

A couple of weeks later I had a woman donate and email me from California who related the story of her late husband who had battled with, and passed away from brain cancer two years prior.   She was a neighbor of a colleague based in San Francisco and came upon my story during a conversation one Sunday morning.  

In both cases I was completely blown away by their generosity and encouragement.   It was therefore no surprise that I raised the $10,000 within a week of my initial email.

Again, Andrea was her usual enthusiastic self and strongly encouraged me (did I say strongly) to increase the goal once more – I guess that is her job after all. :-)  

I did in fact  surpass my goal of $15,000 and fortunately was able to exceed that goal the week prior to my departure for Papua New Guinea.

Arriving into the village of Kokoda on that first day of my hike I felt the love and support of all those folks around the world who had helped me collectively attain the goal.  It was now my turn to “put in the hard yards” and make them proud to have supported me.   I think I had the easier task to be honest!

I hope that when Zach and Sami look back on my trek along the Kokoda Track that they understand the true nature and level of compassion and kindness that had been bestowed upon me during this adventure and that inherently the world is a wonderfully generous place.

Thank you again to everyone who donated!

p.s.  An update on our house hunting activities – we made a deposit and have a home inspection scheduled for tomorrow late afternoon to make sure its sound and that we know of any issues before we continue with the purchase….one step closer to our new place!    Did I say Sami was excited!    OMG….