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Today's donation goes to Sharing in Student Success, which falls under the umbrella of the Caring and Sharing Exchange:
https://www.caringandsharing.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39&Itemid=115
I felt this was particularly appropriate for this week, when the majority of Ottawa-based kids returned to school, whether in person or virtually. But first a little background.
The Caring and Sharing Exchange started out life as the Christmas Exchange, helping the working poor by providing hampers of food and gifts during the holiday season. When I was a kid, my parents regularly donated to them and often the gift was a pair or two of nylons, something that was relatively expensive back in the day. Once I joined the workforce, our office would sometimes symbolically "adopt" a family, pooling donations from a particular division to buy a hamper or two. Then as I got a little more prosperous, I started making personal donations each year, usually around November or early December. I often would also support them by buying their tree ornaments.
When they expanded in 2011 into the back-to-school area, I was rather more hesitant. While not questioning the need, I felt that really that task should not fall to the charitable sector at all. After all, education is supposed to be free up to grade 12 - that's why we have a provincial Ministry of Education and why we pay for universal public education out of our property taxes. So up to now, I have limited my donations to the seasonal hamper program.
This year, however, I recognize that there are unprecedented demands on schools, teachers, students and their families arising from pandemic conditions so I have decided to make an exception. I do like that it is a secular, Ottawa-based charity and the money will remain within my own community.
Eagle-eyed followers of this blog may have noticed that there was no entry for yesterday, for the first time since lockdown began. That's because we were thoroughly preoccupied with tracking down the whereabouts of our little foster-cat, who had disappeared into the bowels of our basement. I'm happy to report that he is alive and well but still skittish and reluctant to emerge from his basement lair.
https://www.caringandsharing.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39&Itemid=115
I felt this was particularly appropriate for this week, when the majority of Ottawa-based kids returned to school, whether in person or virtually. But first a little background.
The Caring and Sharing Exchange started out life as the Christmas Exchange, helping the working poor by providing hampers of food and gifts during the holiday season. When I was a kid, my parents regularly donated to them and often the gift was a pair or two of nylons, something that was relatively expensive back in the day. Once I joined the workforce, our office would sometimes symbolically "adopt" a family, pooling donations from a particular division to buy a hamper or two. Then as I got a little more prosperous, I started making personal donations each year, usually around November or early December. I often would also support them by buying their tree ornaments.
When they expanded in 2011 into the back-to-school area, I was rather more hesitant. While not questioning the need, I felt that really that task should not fall to the charitable sector at all. After all, education is supposed to be free up to grade 12 - that's why we have a provincial Ministry of Education and why we pay for universal public education out of our property taxes. So up to now, I have limited my donations to the seasonal hamper program.
This year, however, I recognize that there are unprecedented demands on schools, teachers, students and their families arising from pandemic conditions so I have decided to make an exception. I do like that it is a secular, Ottawa-based charity and the money will remain within my own community.
Eagle-eyed followers of this blog may have noticed that there was no entry for yesterday, for the first time since lockdown began. That's because we were thoroughly preoccupied with tracking down the whereabouts of our little foster-cat, who had disappeared into the bowels of our basement. I'm happy to report that he is alive and well but still skittish and reluctant to emerge from his basement lair.
