On the Way to Cape Breton

My mother grumbles that she's on everyone's mailing list for charitable donations. She says she can't possibly give to every organization that sends her free greeting cards or stickers, but she tries, divvying up the individual gifts into smaller and smaller amounts each year because of the increasing onslaught.

Marie Martin is also a WWII Veteran who is justifiably proud of the #2610 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps Sponsored by Courcelette Br.#058 Sheet Harbour, N.S. Read her article!

To all intents and purposes it's junk mail, but we don't see it that way. Like buying insurance, giving to charities is a part of our social fabric that we don't question. We accept responsibility when the seasonal outreach for donations tugs at our hearts and our pursestrings.

We give to the charities that we most believe in, for their mission or purpose, or because they represent an illness that has taken the life of a loved one. We give to immortalize ourselves on some tangible object like a patio brick or cornerstone, or a marker on a trail somewhere in the hinterlands. We give to insure our path to the hereafter.

We give because it makes us feel better about having enough to eat, a warm, safe home and no disabilities or life-threatening diseases. We give because we have more than others. We give because it's the human thing to do.

Most of my mother's mail solicitations come from large organizations, like Greenpeace, Feed the Children, or the Canadian Red Cross. Others reach out from the city core, like Toronto's 'Beat the Street' youth program.

When my mother shops, she looks for "Made in Nova Scotia" labels on the products she buys. She purchases as much as she can from the local corner store, even if the nearest Atlantic Superstore sells cheaper and has wider variety. While she's not a 'raging granny', at 78 she organizes a group each year for the Adopt A Highway program and spends every second Friday volunteering at the local hospital. She gives quietly and with the same rationale she takes shopping. From her point of view, charity begins at home.

Here, for my mother and for anyone else who believes that giving closer to home is a better way, is a list of lesser known local charities. These smaller budget non-profits could use just a few of the dollars generated by the large automated donation solicitation systems. No money? Not to worry. If you can't give tangibles, give of yourself. There is no greater gift.

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