Growing up as a child my parents taught me and my siblings the joy of selfless giving. We volunteered our time to the church throughout my childhood and the gratitude that we received made us very happy. There was this one time when an elderly lady that I delivered newspapers to asked me to help her thread a needle in her sewing machine because she couldn’t see very well. She rewarded me with a quarter which I promptly spent on candy and that act of kindness began my journey in life of selfless giving.
To this day people like my mom, my best friend Tuula, past colleagues and fellow Toastmasters like Mark McKenzie inspire me to continue this journey which has actually developed into more of mission and part of a dream that I have of making the world a better place.
One of the experiences I had with volunteering was for many years I would donate money to many charities like the Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation and MS Society. I realized that all this money that I was donating was not making the impact that I desired. It got swallowed up in the logistics of developing a cure. I was saddened by this and came up with a different approach to making a more direct impact on the problem. I began to donate my time! My selfless giving had found that mission that made the impact that I was looking for.
As an artist I love doing paintings of wildlife and producing graphics for non-profit organizations. My first donation of a painting was for the Sick Kids Hospital. Our good friend’s daughter was born with a medical condition that required many operations to keep her alive and when contributing donations to her fund we painted a canvas of a mother lioness holding a cub in its mouth.
Many years later I was approached by a fellow colleague who had become a helicopter pilot at Cap Borden in Barrie. Every year they would deliver toys by helicopter around Christmas Time to the Sick Kids Hospital and to raise funds he sourced me out to donate my time to create the graphics for a one of a kind calendar that had photographs of some of the missions they were on and a photographs taken by another colleague who was a photographer for the Snowbirds. Ken Lin had also donated his time to produce this limited edition calendar. Donations were given to print it and all the proceeds went to the hospital. Now this made a HUGE impact! And all I had to give was my time.
Today I support small business owners and non-profit organizations by this selfless giving and the gratitude that I receive is worth way more than money and I can only hope that others realize the impact you can make by just taking the time … and donating it!
Finally my experience last year when I happily delivered our big box of non-perishables to the Salvation Army of Brampton has reinforced my mission and dream to make the world a better place. Losing my job as a digital media artist for a long time employee of 20 years made me realize how much wasteful spending I was doing on frivolous things. Now with much less income I seem to realize how little some people have just to survive. As I dropped the food off at the back of the Salvation Army I couldn’t get into the building so I left the box outside with a note of who it was from. As I entered the front of the building to let them know there was a box waiting I handed the note to a man rocking back and forth on the floor in the tiny lobby that had no chairs and the look of gratitude that I got from everyone touched my heart deeply. Now when I’m out grocery shopping I always by two of the things that I see on sale to add to that box that waits to be filled and once again delivered to the Salvation Army. Thanks Mark for your inspirational work and opportunity to go after my dream of making the world a better place.
Please visit www.skystudio.ca to more Tuula's art work.
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