The goodness in you

I was feeling pretty bummed tonight about the state of the world and the dreadful things people do to eachother and the earth. This anger and frustration and despair was built on a couple of things from the past few days - reading about Dubai and the slavery and eco-suicide it's built upon; reading various news articles on murders and assaults and the unwillingness of the US, Canadian and Australian governments to commit to any real climate change initiatives; seeing people in my office building chucking stuff into the dumpster that could have been reused or at the very least recycled... etc. etc.

After ranting at Rem and Anne for a good while each, I have been trying to take their advice and focus on the people out there who are doing good things and trying their best. Happily, I seem to know several of them!

My Gram is one such person. She makes dozens of quilts each year out of fabric she gets from places like the thrift shop and the roll ends at the fabric shops. Since I started volunteering at the Reuse Centre, I've been getting her bags of fabric from there, too. As a result, she's been delivering bags of finished quilts to me every time I see her. Usually I take the quilts directly to a women's shelter or an inner city charity, but I figured I'd try something different this time. And that's where I discovered a bunch more people willing to pitch in for good works.

I "auctioned" the quilts off for donations to women's shelters or homelessness charities and have had 12 of the 14 quilts claimed by 9 generous people. Big thanks go out to Keith, Janel, Anne, Mi, Allison, Betty-Anne, Jenn, Micah and Sophie for their generous donations. They've chosen to support the Bissell Centre, the Youth Emergency Shelter, the Women's Transitional House in Vernon, Habitat for Humanity in Guelph, Margaret Savage Women's Shelter in Cold Lake, Operation Friendship, WIN House (Edmonton Women's Shelter) and the Nyarut Village Development Project through SaveaVillage.ca.

Thanks not only for helping out these wonderful organizations, but also for helping to build my faith in humanity, folks!