Amnesty International

I first became involved in letter writing with Amnesty International in my teen years when I heard the story of a young man, unjustly imprisoned, tortured in horrible conditions in India. He was there doing volunteer development work; he was thrown into jail without trial for being a terrorist.

He had immigrated to Canada previously, to Edmonton; his story made the news. It was, in 1988, for me, my awakening to social justice. I joined Amnesty and a letter requesting his release was my first social justice act.

I've since had the pleasure to meet Amarjeet Sohi. He was released. He returned to Canada. He became a city councillor, working to make his city a better place.

He is now an MP in our Federal Government, a Cabinet Minister. He is The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities.

We had sushi together last summer: me and the person who was, unbeknownst to him, the catalyst of my social justice work and my political awareness. We talked about this and both teared up. I haven't seen him since; I can only imagine how such a massive change of circumstances in a few decades must feel. We thanked each other mutually that day, for what each had done for the other.

I continue to support Amnesty International because there are countless people in prison internationally, held against international law, held without evidence, killed, focus of discrimination. Not everyone will be released. Not everyone will become a major political force. I certainly will not, 27 years after writing a letter, meet each person for whom I have written my support. I don't support Amnesty International for me or the potential of sushi with a lovely man!

Everyone deserves basic human rights. THAT is why I support the work Amnesty International does.

Please donate.

BLOG AND DONATION CAMPAIGN ARE SUSPENDED FOR MOMENT

Anyone following can see posts to FB event provided by my partner. Thank you.

JTMF West

Jen wrote this post as well, about JTMF West, a memorial fund into which our dear friend Joyce LaBriola pours her heart and soul:

Today's organization is one Kim and I love and support in large part because it is the heart-child of Joyce LaBriola - If you don't know Joyce, I feel sad for you, because she is one of Edmonton's biggest powerhouses. She makes amazing things happen, everywhere she goes. She is a gorgeous light and we are lucky to call her a good friend.

JTMF West came to be because Joyce lost someone to complications from the AIDS virus. And she turned that loss into a major fundraising initiative that supports agencies who, in turn, support street involved youth and other communities at increased risk of exposure to the AIDS virus.

Here's more info about JTMF West and where you can donate, if this is your cause. http://www.jtmfwest.com

Also, they have a SUPER FUN event coming up and you could support them, and have a BLAST by buying tickets, here:https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/art-in-excess-tickets-285972421…

More about the event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/206883489723739/

Little known fact: Kim and I had our very first date at a JTMF fundraising event. The rest, as they say, is history.

Canadian Cancer Society

My wonderful partner Jen did the post for me on the Canadian Cancer Society too:

The Canadian Cancer Society - This year Kim and I lost too many people to this asshole disease, and anything you can do to make sure fewer suffer and those diagnosed suffer less, well, we'd appreciate it.

Please donate.

Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers

My thanks to my lovely partner for having shared this charity on FB.

The Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers has been one of the leading agencies in welcoming Syrian refugees to our city. They are tireless. The work they do makes Edmonton a better, richer, safer city for so many.

Please donate.

Tiger Family Fund- In Memory of Shannon Zwicker

Today is October 14, 2016. It is Shannon Zwicker’s birthday. It was Thanksgiving Day the year Shannon was born. I know that I am not alone in being thankful that Shannon was the person she was and did all that she did. Shannon is someone whose full reach and impact can probably never be known; there are people in many places, in many organizations, that have been supported by Shannon’s work but who don’t know that she was responsible for it.

Shannon was a fundraiser, a donor, a visionary, a person who believed that great things could happen. She was an inspiration to many and was behind the financial beginnings and the sustainability of several of the charities featured in my 40 Days of Giving.

I was lucky enough to cross paths with Shannon several times, all, not surprisingly, at fundraisers. Much of the public, especially people who worked with her professionally, will remember her fundraising legacy most prominently when they think of her.

Personally, I think of her first as a mother, because that is how I first came to know of her.

Shannon’s sister, Heather, was one of my favourite professors in my undergraduate years. I took a class on literary theory taught by Heather; it was amazing how often Heather could fit loving anecdotes about her nieces and her sister into lectures on Althusser, structuralism, Derrida, postcolonialism… She even borrowed Lego from her nieces, noting her sister’s generosity in the loan, to illustrate something (sorry Heather, I remember the Lego and nothing whatsoever of what you did with it.) I recall her saying she demonstrated her idea to her nieces (who must have been toddlers at the time) and having laughed about it with her sister.

Shannon’s way through life, her philosophy of “love is the answer” and her positivity in the face of what would make many people crumble, was amazing. Her philanthropy, her fundraising, and her personality all made me like her from the moment I met her. (I met Shannon through my partner, not through Heather, but immediately knew they were connected. I said to Jen, my partner, "If she looks like a Zwicker and she walks like a Zwicker and she talks like a Zwicker, she must be a Zwicker. Is she related to Heather?”)

Her mothering is what I have heard much so much about, a couple of decades ago and recently, and is what I admire most, what inspires me, and from all I have heard, what motivated her. Her children meant the world to her, as did she to them.

Today, I am featuring the Tiger Family Fund. The Tiger Family Fund existed before Shannon died. She and her husband Josh set up the Tiger Family fund in 2009 to engage their children in philanthropy. As a family, they selected a cause to support each year. The Tiger Family Fund is a legacy for Shannon’s children and for our society, as the ongoing selection of causes and contributions continue.

As I mentioned, today is Shannon’s birthday. I admit that I rigged this particular date (in consultation with her sister) because of the somber coincidence that this is her first birthday since dying and it falls in the period of a fundraiser I’m running, motivated in part by Shannon. Her belief in giving back, in doing what she could, in just jumping in and trying something, and infusing her mothering with passing on all that love for the world to her children encouraged me to just go ahead and try this when the idea struck. It seemed apropos that the Tiger Family Fund being one of my selections, I should feature it on Shannon’s birthday.

I want to mark her birthday both to honour her memory and legacy and to celebrate her. I hope donations enable a small part of the mothering she did to continue, to help her children have the funds to continue the philanthropic ideals she was helping them develop, to ensure the living memory of Shannon, their mom.

On that note, I have been given permission to share something else of Shannon’s legacy of mothering. It’s something less serious than all I’ve written to this point. Shannon wrote a poem for her children that one of her daughters shared at the celebration of Shannon’s life. I think her whimsy, playfulness, and fun need to be remembered today too; those attributes are inseparable from the fundraising mom who always said, “love is the answer.”

Please read her delightful, silly poem and join me in donating to the Tiger FamilyFund. And this evening, please raise a glass to the incredible person Shannon was and to the legacy of love and caring that lives on in her children, her parents, her sister, her husband, and her sister-in-law as well as the countless lives she touched. My thanks to her family for allowing me to share this poem with you and for their kind words offered with their consent to feature the Tiger Family Fund today.


Twenty-Five Cats Named Sam

By Shannon Zwicker

Did you know Andy Warhol had twenty-five cats?

Well, it’s true – or at least it’s been said.

We can’t ask him to count them or verify facts,

For, alas, Andy Warhol is dead!

But when he was alive (and had so many cats)

An amazing young artist was Andy.

His print-makings, paintings, shows, drawings and films,

Made him famous, which no doubt was dandy!

His art was so strange, it created a stir.

It was weird; it was fresh; it was new!

And just as his fame and his fortune increased,

So his feline collection, it grew.

Do you think having twenty-five kitties is odd?

Well, I’m telling you truly, I am,

That the craziest, zaniest, makes-no-sense part

Is he named every one of them Sam!

Sam was the Persian with sea-foam blue eyes,

And Sam was a loud Siamese,

Sam the orange tabby and Sam the Maine Coon

Sam the Blue Purebred Burmese.

White cats and tortoiseshells, long hair or short,

If they meowed, they were Sam, one and all.

When their dinnertime came, it was simple enough:

Just “Sam!” was all Andy need call.

I do wish that Warhol were still here today.

I’d grab fifteen minutes of fame,

To have a Last Supper with him and his cats

And give every pet a new name.

One I’d call Campbell, another one Soup,

There’d be Pop Art and one Light Fantastic,

A black one named Velvet and one Underground,

One Inkblot, one Exploding Plastic.

Eight Elvises, yes! And four Marilyn Munroes,

Silver Cloud and a Platinum Wig,

Tainted Tuna (a tabby, I really do think)

And a calico Fiesta Pig

How many is that now? I think twenty-four.

I have but one name to assign.

What shall we call that one? I have an idea!

Don’t you think the name Sam would be fine?

TO SHANNON! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation

The Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation was founded in 2001, though had been active long before, to raise funds for the Stollery Children's Hospital. Named for the Foundation's founders, the Stollery aims to provide superior healthcare to very ill children and to children with unique health needs.
Our children see more specialists at the Stollery than I can count on my fingers. Like me, my biological children are autistic. Being autistic is not an illness but it can present some challenging co-morbid conditions and some needs that require specialized attention (if only anesthesia for examinations.) Between specialized paediatric dentists and specialized paediatric neurologists, MRIs, CAT scans, the Stollery has helped our two youngest in numerous ways. But they are not sick.

Many children who enter the Stollery are very sick. The Stollery was still new when I, as a child, was prepared by family and friends for the death of the child who was then my best friend. Her illness was a mystery; it was the early 80s and there was speculation of AIDS, then hepatitis... but tests came back negative time and again. Despite negative tests, she deteriorated. And, as inexplicable as her condition was, so to was her recovery. We were both 10 years old; she didn't die.

Those who know my family know that my oldest biological child and youngest stepchild participate annually in the Hair Massacure, a fundraiser that benefits the Stollery and other organizations that support sick children, primarily focused on children with cancer. We became involved with Team Aaron through his aunt. My stepson had already participated in Hair Massacure; we came to know of Aaron when he was 8 and had been declared in remission. He had been through treatment for stage 4 neuroblastoma. Unjustly, unfairly, having been diagnosed at 4, he had two declarations of remission after a full year of being cancer-free each time. Unlike my friend who did not die at 10 years old, Aaron did. He spent most of his life in and out of the Stollery and fundraising whether he was in a cancer-free period with as much devotion as he had from his hospital bed at what would be his final Hair Massacure. The Stollery was there for Aaron and his family at every turn.

So many stories of children who have entered the Stollery and never left or have entered the Stollery and left with clean bills of health could be told. What matters is the care received while there. The Stollery Children's Hospital supports children and their families with exceptional heathcare and care at some of the most difficult times of their lives.

There is no monetary value that can be put on what the Stollery does. However, there are financial costs to the operation of the Stollery, to in patient and out patient programs, that are in dire need of support.

Please join me in donating to the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation, the organization that provides that needed funding, to ensure that all children in the hospital get the best care possible and that through funded research, more and more children leave healthy, having entered sick.