Youth

Kiwanis – Making My Heart Feel Good

For most of this century, thus far, I have been a member of Kiwanis.

Upon reading that, some will nod their head and smile knowingly. Others will cock their head to the side with a puzzled look on their face. You see, not everyone knows what “Kiwanis” is.

Put simply, “Kiwanis is all about kids”. That’s what I respond when asked, and even when not asked, that’s what I tell people.

Kiwanis is an international, community based, organization comprised of people who care about children and youths. In many ways we consider ourselves to be a family, a family comprised of close to 450,000 members around the world.

The mission statement for Kiwanis International is: Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time. The most commonly used hashtag is: #KidsNeedKiwanis.

I became a member of the Kiwanis Club of South Edmonton in 2001, and over the years have filled a number of positions within the club, such as Secretary, Webmaster and President. I have also been Division Six Lieutenent Governor, and Western Canada District Governor.

Also, my wife Kim has been a member of our club since 2004. As some of you may know, Kim and I consider Malacca, Malaysia, to be our second home, and both of us are involved with Kiwanis Malaysia District, being members there as well for a number of years.

Now, my intent with this blog post is not to tell you all about Kiwanis, although I do strongly suggest you read more about this fine organization by clicking on the links above. Rather I will be sharing a few of my Kiwanis experiences to try and explain how and why Kiwanis means so much to Kim and I.

I should let you know that I do not “grade” my Kiwanis experiences as they are all equally special to me. As well, the time frames make no difference. So, in no particular order, here we go.

Back in the late 1950’s our club decided to develop some lakefront property west of Edmonton into a camp for children with disabilities. In 1960 Camp Health, Hope & Happiness (Camp HeHoHa) opened and it has grown larger and stronger since. Along with fellow club members and others, I have visited the camp regularly for many years. While there we get to witness how powerful the camp experience is for those children attending. They feel free because all those around them have some form of disability as well.

It was on one of my visits that I had, what we often call, a “Kiwanis moment”. At the camp is a climbing wall, about twenty metres high, and it gets quite a bit of use from the campers. On this day, I watched a young disabled child climb the wall, by herself, all the way to the top. You can tell by the look on her face after she came down what it meant to her. While watching her I was thinking that our Kiwanis Club made it possible for her being able to be there and climb that wall. I still marvel at that to this day, and it makes me feel very proud.

While in Malaysia, when a person says Kiwanis, people often think of Down Syndrome, and when people mention Down Syndrome, folks often think of Kiwanis. In 1989 the Kiwanis Club of Kuala Lumpur decided there should be support for children with Down Syndrome. From that came the Kiwanis Down Syndrome Foundation and five Kiwanis Down Syndrome Centres around the country. Kim and I have been often to the KDSC in Kuala Lumpur and frequently volunteer at the KDSC in Melaka, where we live while in Malaysia.

One of the activities at the KDSC Melaka is their Annual Sports Day, with a great many activities arranged for the children to take part in. The children, parents and Kiwanians, all have great fun and laughter together.

After the games were over, it was time to eat and then time for prizes. There were awards for all participants as these games were not for serious competition, but for fun and the joyous enjoyment of doing things together. As I was a “distinguished visitor from Canada”, being Kiwanis Western Canada Governor at the time, I was asked to present some of the prizes to the children. This I was more than happy to do. And it paid me big time. While I was presenting a prize to the young lady in the photo she looked at me. It is difficult for me to describe how I felt at that instant, but every time I tell people about it I cry, as I’m doing now while typing this. To this day I say thank goodness Kim was taking many photos and happened to catch that exact moment.

The third moment I will share today is a program that our club has had for a very long time. I was of course introduced to it as a club member.

Certainly a great many folks are familiar with Reading Week, where local celebraties and others will go to schools and read to the students there. This usually happens towards the end of September. The program offered by our club (and other clubs), is similar however is an ongoing event, several times a year. It is called “Reading Is Fundamental”. Our club member would go to an inner city daycare and not only read to the children, but give the each child a book, including the one that was read to them. For many of the children it may be the first book they have ever had, and at times the only book that they might get. My parents made sure that I grew up reading books, for which I am thankful. Knowing that our presence at the inner city daycare could make a difference in a child’s life is indeed a good feeling. After the reading there would be a healthy snack for all.

Now these are but three of the aspects of Kiwanis, however I hope they give you an idea of why Kiwanis means so much to those who have been lucky enough to become members.

Doing things for the children of the world, whether they be in our own communities, or on the other side of the globe is both necessary and rewarding. Click the links above, read more, check out the Kiwanis Club in your area, they’d welcome your questions and your membership. The emotional awards can be great.

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you enjoyed my blog post. Your feedback is alway welcome and appreciated. Until next time, look after yourself and look out for others.

My Name I Ponder

Yesterday I read an interesting post by Waking up on the Wrong Side of 50, a fellow blogger. Her post, entitled Name Game, was asking about the name one was given at birth and the name one goes by now.

That got me thinking of my own name and its transitions.

At my birth I was given the first names Richard Linnaeus. Richard having a long tradition on my paternal side and Linnaeus being my maternal grandfather’s name.

Up until I began school I was known as Linne, short form for Linnaeus. Once in school I was often teased, even bullied, for having a “girl’s” name, so I started using Richard, which, at some point in the process became Rick. That stayed with me through high school, technical school, university and into the military.

During my military career I began using Richard more and, depending on the activity I was involved in, would answer to either Richard or Rick. This carried on after my military retirement into my business activities. Eventually Rick all but disappeared, and for at least the last 20-25 years I have gone by Richard.

Now comes the crux of the thinking brought forward by the blog post.

Over the years, many years, I have often mulled in my mind about reverting my name to Linne. I must say that it has bothered me at times that I gave in to the teasers and bullies (these are similar but have different processes). I have determined that my grandfather went his entire life known as Linne to many, and he was a highly successful, accomplished person, becoming very well known in Great Britain.

During my life I have learned much about names, how important they are to us, in meaning, in family, and in history.

Even though I’m blogging about it, my situation is but a very small scale issue in the grand scheme of things.

However, there are many people who have had others literally rename them. People who are born here, or come to Canada from another country will be “renamed” by acquaintences, co-workers or employers, who, for one reason or another, don’t (or won’t) make the effort to say the person’s name properly. As a result they are given a “Canadian” name that is easy to say and/or spell. I need not provide any examples because I’m sure that each of my readers will know of someone in that situation.

So, getting back to my situation, I have often thought I should change back, and then I hesitate, wondering about any issues it would create. Even now, as I type this, I have stopped to ponder. If I change, how would I do it, how much would I change. Would I leave all the “official stuff”, passport, drivers licence, healthcare, and so on, the same (actually for most no change would be necessary). Probably just change the day-to-day usage, social media, that type of thing.

It is indeed something to ponder. What will I do? What would others think? What do my readers think? Feel free to let me know.

Regardless, life goes on. Be assured that I will continue to provide blogs, podcasts and more, through my Wee Internet Empire, irrespective of what name I choose to call myself.

Until next time. Take good care of yourself, and look out for others.

So… What’s Up, What’s Happening, What’s Going Down

This morning I was starting to put together my latest newsletter (you can subscribe here), and I was going to use the words above as my lead in as it’s an expression that I have been using for a great many years. Then I thought about it and decided that I would write a blog post with those words as the title.

Just for interest, I then Googled them. The first things that came up were a 1992 song from 4 Non Blondes called What’s Up? and a 1966 song from Buffalo Springfield called For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound).

As it turns out, as an old fart, both of these songs are quite familiar to me, and both have developed a large following, being considered as either a protest or an type of anthem by those at the time.

For myself, I feel that both could be entirely applicable to events of the current times.

That being said, these songs were not what generated the thought process for this blog post.

Rather, it was a bit of contemplation of recent personal happenings.

Top of mind, yesterday, along with several Kiwanis colleagues, I attended a memorial service for a friend and long time club member. Ed Bean was a member of the Kiwanis Club of South Edmonton for sixty-five years, caring deeply about anything which would benefit young people. More than that, he was a pillar of the Edmonton community. He helped create and maintain Crystal Kids, an organization teaching, mentoring and nurturing at-risk, inner city kids, named after Crystal Glass, a company he formed in 1949. He was involved, over the years, in a great many community positive happenings as well as being a member of the Edmonton Investors Group which owned the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League from 1998 to 2008. A true people person, Ed will be sorely missed, however his heritage will live long.

I recently set up and started a private family Facebook group, designed to introduce and acquaint diverse family members with each other. Like many families, as time has passed many of us are not familiar with distant cousins, and even may not actually know that we have these cousins. (And no, I’m not providing a link for this blog post, that’s what private is all about.)

As I’m working on this group, I have been delving more and more into our family history. It keeps getting more interesting, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the odd time someone shows up that I knew about, but didn’t know we were related. I do imagine there are many families which may be like that. Check into yours, never know what you’ll find.

Another thing going on, there is a chance that I may actually have my hip replacement surgery on the horizon. As a result, I’m once again going through a battery of tests, procedures and activities in preparation. Perhaps this time it will actually happen. Fingers crossed.

There are a few other things going on that I won’t bore you with. Be it known however, that snow, ice and cold weather are still “in vogue” here in Edmonton and as such the trike and SLK are still ensconced in the garage. (Now I’m making a sad face.)

Bottom line… life is proceeding in it’s unique fashion and our job is to do our best to adapt to it’s flow. It seems to last longer that way.

Has Spring Sprung?

My last post was the beginning of January and so much has happened in the past few months.

I have thought many times about doing a post, however it is obvious that thinking and doing are vastly different.

The spark for this blog post was rain, or more accurately, the smell of approaching rain.

As a youngster growing up in the rural countryside of central Alberta, just northeast of Edmonton, one of my fond memories was the smell of a pending spring rain, bringing with it life and freshness to wash away the final vestiges of winter. Sitting in my home office yesterday afternoon that delightful smell entered my window and once again touched my olfactory receptors. The rains came after and continued in a steady fashion for just over twelve hours. Overnight the lawn across from us has changed from brown to green.

Methinks I will need to type a blog post or two in the next while to catch up on the events of the past few months, both local and international, along with their effect on us. For now though, I will just concentrate, and enjoy, the fresh smell of a spring rain.