Doing Good

Spent this morning delivering food with the Red Cross program known as Meals on Wheels, along with 7 of my co-workers. Lucky for us, our employer provides two paid days a year for us to use for charitable activities.  It was nice to be out doing something good for others and seeing first hand how these people (mostly elderly but meals are also provided for disabled individuals, the chronically ill and those who are unable to cook for themselves) benefit from having a warm meal delivered to their door on a wet, rainy day from a friendly volunteer.

Photo from redcross.ca website, blue bags for regular meals,
red bag for meals for those with special dietary needs

We also learned about Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross (I swear the woman telling us the story called him Henry Donut but clearly I misheard.)  Henry saw people suffering on an Italian battlefield in 1859, realized they needed medical attention, transportation to a safe place and/or a warm meal and got a group together to provide those services.  These days, the Red Cross provides similar services in our local communities - as well as programs like the one I took part in today, there are the more publicized disaster relief and blood donor activities, and they also do things like arrange drivers to take people to and from medical appointments.

I was most impressed by the fact that the regular core of volunteers at the MOW office today was made up of retired individuals in the senior citizen age bracket.  The woman driver we had is turning 60 this year but she would have been the youngest of all the very nice people I met (other than the paid staff members), the rest would all be in their 60's (a few) and 70's (the majority).  The ones I spoke to help out several days a week for at least 3 hours a day.  Such generosity and commitment is admirable, what great role models they are for the rest of us!