So Halloween is over, Remembrance Day is upon us, and now the global consciousness (and global bank account) turns to the Holidays.
One of the best gifts I ever received was a chicken. Yes, no lie, a chicken! We do a family gift exchange every year and not long ago, my cousin bought me a chicken via a world relief organization that, in turn, was given to a family in Africa. He kindly named it Sue. He wasn’t able to afford the goat, so a chicken it was. My chicken was given to a family so that it could be used for eggs, to make more chickens, and then eventually end up in the pot. I hope that today there are many little Sues running around in Africa and making the lives of those families a little better.
What this odd story helped me to realize is how much I have to be grateful for, and that in this age of consumerism, where EVERYTHING is commercialized, more and more of us are thinking about what we can give during the holidays rather than what we will receive. With this in mind we spent some time researching local charities. Helping us realize that many people are not as fortunate, and many of those people aren’t in Africa…they are right in our own neighbourhoods. Here at Port Moody Integrated Health we have decided to hold a toy drive for the local community to help families in need that can’t give each other the gifts they deserve. We have decided upon SHARE as the community organization in Port Moody that we would like to support. In lieu of the gift exchange we typically do with each other, all the practitioners and staff of PMIH will be making a contribution to SHARE’s annual toy drive.
There is going to be a donation box in the office that we are hoping to fill with presents for the children. We hope that you, as our extended family, will join us in donating. We will be collecting gifts until December 10th. SHARE has expressed a special need for gifts for infants, children ages 9 – 12 and teens.
We sincerely hope that you will be able to make it into the office to contribute. However if you’re unable come in to help us in our support of the toy drive, we urge you to think about other ways to make this coming Holiday a special one for someone else.
The Holiday season is a time to come together, to share, and to be merry. I wish you all a Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year!
Sue Macrae RMT
Port Moody Integrated Health Massage Therapy