We can find pride and joy inside ourselves while helping local charities achieve their year-end goals.
By Roger Klein // Photo by Anya Shor
Have you ever wondered how you would react in an emergency situation? Would you freeze? Or would you react quickly and save the day? It’s easy to imagine how helping another person in a single heroic moment could flood you with a sense of pride, well-being and satisfaction.
In reality, most of us aren’t faced with a life-threatening crisis every day, but we can still get a similar sense of pride and well-being by helping others, and it starts with a healthy dose of empathy. Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another’s perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share, their experience. Can you imagine the desperation of being cold and homeless? Suffering from a terminal illness?
Or being in an abusive relationship without the financial means to escape? Allowing yourself to imagine “what it’s like” might motivate you to take action and offer a helping hand.
Perhaps you’re far too busy to volunteer and you don’t have the time to give. Why not make a financial donation instead? How about a donation to the Hospice Georgian Triangle Foundation, Home Horizon, or My Friend’s House? That act of kindness may give you the same rush of endorphins as being a hero in a moment of crisis.
While charitable donations can help with an immediate need, the desire to make a difference over the long term can take on a more strategic approach through ongoing philanthropy. You might feel a connection to a particular cause or organization, or want to leave a legacy by engaging in worthwhile projects like the construction of a new hospital in Collingwood. In this issue of On The Bay, Jory Pritchard-Kerr speaks about her decades of commitment to raise millions of dollars for the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital Foundation, and the monumental challenge that still lies ahead.
And we shouldn’t forget about the dogs and cats at the Georgian Triangle Humane Society, or the work the Escarpment Corridor Alliance is doing to protect our forests and waterways.
There are so many local causes that it can be overwhelming, so pick your battles and remember, no matter the size of your contribution, it’s better to give than to receive. And in the unlikely event that the act of giving does not fill your heart with pride and joy, you can always find comfort in a tax receipt!
Roger Klein
Publisher, On The Bay
roger@baywatch.ca
