Congratulations on a wonderful weekend symposium!  It was lovely to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in a long time and to meet new people that will, I’m sure, remain an important part of my community.

We talked about synchronicity on the weekend and so I thought it might be amusing to share with you a part of the story that wasn’t part of the story I shared Saturday.

Twelve years (can it be that long???) I wrote the Raptors’ Foundation first annual report. I remember there being some controversy about the Foundation directing funds to agencies that supported homeless youth – at that time, known as squeegee kids. There was little public support and, perhaps, some misplaced fear regarding these “menace” children.  Since we had funded Evergreen, the agency that worked with many of Toronto’s homeless kids, I thought there was another story to tell.

I spoke with Ron, the Raptors’ photographer and convinced him to give up his coveted end zone court position to shadow me for two days while I shadowed two homeless youth.  It was the middle of winter so the invitation wasn’t warmly received.  But Ron grabbed his camera and followed me to where he met my new friends Knuckles and Phreak – yes, with “Ph” as Phreak reminded everyone he met.

Knuckles was 15, a beautiful young girl hidden behind her tomboyish armour.  She was a proud of mom of a three-year-old little boy who was being cared for by her mom.  It seemed the least her mom could do since it was her boyfriend who had fathered Knuckles’ child.

So, for two days, Ron and I squatted with these two gentle souls who found it safer giving up their warm bed to sleep in freezing stairwells, abandoned buildings and street alcoves.  For two days we learned about their lives, their pain, their hope for the future against a backdrop of despair.  For two days we thought about how fortunate we were and how, in our own small way, Ron and I would take the experience and help make the world a little better, one big and little person at a time.  I’m not sure if the impact of those two days has stuck with Ron all these years later but it has for me.

I picture Knuckles and Phreak happy, successful and safe in a loving home they’ve created.

The report did well and went on to win an international Gold Quill award – the only thing the Raptors won that year as I recall. (lol)

.

The publication’s name?  Hope.

Isn’t life weird and wonderful?