Monday, December 13, 2010

PLENK2010 Supporting Outstanding Volunteers


CBC Radio is running a contest to honour outstanding Canadian volunteers. I heard about Bobby Hayes today, so I looked him up. He is one of the top 10. You can particpate by voting here: http://www.cbc.ca/change/top10.html
The Top 10 finalists have been announced and now it's time for you to select which two will be the ultimate Champions of Change. Both champs win $25,000 for their cause.

The reason that I chose Bobby Hayes is that he is making a difference in the lives of children who need a compass in their lives: someone to talk to, someone to tell their story to. He said he used to try to get official help for them, but each organization could not/would not help because the kid or family didn't meet their criteria.

So he began using his own money and time.  Soon kids were telling one another, "Go find that Bobby guy.  He'll help you."  His list of kids got longer and longer, so he started the Johua Group.

He sounded a lot like a local guy who was a hero to many people.  He died felling a widow-maker tree when he was getting firewood for the elders of his Nuxalk Nation.  Over a thousand people from all of Bella Coola and distant parts came to his funeral.  There were many young people there weeping because their compass was gone.  Scott Moody was the student who got me writing because he challenged me to find the place in his textbook that showed what I was teaching them.  He was right.  It wasn't in their texts.  It was in their text from two years ago--but they were too far away from that Grade to remember.  So I started writing a book that they could use as a reference text.  Other people were at Scott's funeral because he was a special person who always stopped whatever he was doing to listen to you.

Bobby Hayes is doing naturally the kind of thing that is recommended to parents and teachers in Hold On To Your Kids by Neufeld and Maté.  If your kids seem perfectly happy with their friends and ignoring you, there are things you can do.  The book tells you how.

No comments:

Post a Comment