Helping Haiti

February 4th, be a part of it!

It’s incredible how many people are coming together to raise money for Haiti. Events such as Radha’s Vegan Bake Sale with Musical Performance by Frazey Ford to Ben Harper auctioning off a White Fender Strat to local elementary, middle and high school kids throwing their energies together and pulling off well over $100 000 worth of hard earned funds for the cause.

CBC, CTV and Global’s 3-network -fundraising-bonanza raised 16 million dollars which will be government-matched and text donations have brought in over $120 000 and counting, with the average text worth 5 bucks.

Even more staggering than the outpouring of help and funds in such a short period of time is the shock of the Earthquake itself. Why Haiti? Why again?

What is incredible is the amount of people who are not letting their coats get snagged on the Why and are already out the door figuring out the How. Take Team Jericho for instance. Six young BC Sikhs are in Haiti helping to serve thousands of daily meals and are blogging about their experiences. These teams of relief workers are the second phase of what the Sikh community has done so far in the face of this sudden tragedy. The first thing was to raise $1.5 million dollars in a week. (And implement a successful toy and school supplies drive).

Another incredible thing is how on the micro-local level, from your neighbour to the person you see on the bus everyday, people are talking about Haiti- about how they can help – not just about how terrible the situation is. That’s a big shift to go from feeling stunned still to feeling like we can do something. Whether that is a bake or craft sale, donating blood or supplies, supporting relief workers, and sending cash to government-matching organizations like the Red Cross.

It’s an incredible time for this city, for better or worse, we are about to host the Olympics – an event that brings together the very ideals of  discipline, strength and unity. I’m so happy to be hearing as much about Haiti as I am about the games.

Vancouver has a lot of problems but two of them aren’t apathy or lack of heart.