#Honour150

 

In March, 2020, on his birthday, this guy was informed that he was one of the Manitoba's top 150 volunteers.  He was excited beyond belief and let me tell you the award was well deserved.  We calculated it one year.  He did 1060 volunteer hours in a year.  More than a .5EFT in addition to his full-time job.  Volunteering was a way of life for him and he started as a teenager.  He is older than a teenager now.  He was an active volunteer for atleast 20 organizations.  And, that doesn't even count his biggest volunteer assignment.  He is my partner and, let's face it, I am a handful.  

So, in March, 2020, he got this very exciting news but there was one caveat.  We had to keep it a secret until it was going to officially announced in June, 2020.  From that point on, it was going to be celebration after celebration for the rest of 2020.  It was going to be difficult but we were prepared to keep the secret.  

Well, something else happened in March 2020.  Coronavirus came to Manitoba.  Everything changed.  We were told to keep the secret until September, 2020.  Then, December 2020.  Then, February 2021.  Then, June 2021.  Then, the official announcement came so we were allowed to tell everyone.  But, the celebrations were cancelled.  A gala was supposed to be held in November, 2021 to honour all 150 volunteers.  Obviously, that couldn't go forward.  Some good came out of that cancellation.  The gala sponsor Canada Life decided to divert the $150,000 that they were going to spend on the gala to the Health Sciences Centre Foundation.  

The #Honour150 committee commissioned artist Takashi Iwasaki to do a medal for each recipient.  The committee told us that they were still hoping for some sort of ceremony to present these medals.  Essentially, with capacity limits, this doesn't seem like this was ever going to be feasible.  Finally, they asked us to plan our own parties to present the medals.  We were going to have some sort of garden party.  For a lot of reasons, that didn't work out.  We ended up having a very private celebration with the person most important to Andrew, his grandson.  Our grandson thought the medal was very cool and of course, he was right.  The medal is so beautiful and tells an incredible story of the geography and spirit of Manitoba.  

Anyway, despite losing the chance to publicly celebrate this award, Andrew really lost much more due to the virus and the shut-downs and restrictions and everything else.  When Manitoba shut down, volunteering options literally dried up.  Capacity limits, restrictions, etc have met that his traditional volunteering venues haven't returned.  I have seen a change in him.  Volunteering used to be his thing.  Now, he has struggled to find that sense of self-worth an self-confidence that volunteering provided for him.  

His mental health has suffered.  Heck, who hasn't had their mental health suffer during this pandemic?  It is been hard on all of us.  

I didn't realize how much he was hurting until one of our friends asked him about one of his volunteer positions, currently on hold.  His whole demeanor changed, body language, even the sound of his voice.  He was literally in pain talking about this volunteer position.  

I wish this was one of these things that I could fix with a hug or a compliment about how well he made dinner.  Heck, I have even thought of making dinner one evening for him.  But, I can't fix this hurt.  The sad thing is that none of us can predict the future.  Volunteering to the extent that he has done, may never fully return.  

The pandemic has caused so much losses, visible and invisible.  Let's be there for each other as much as we can.  xoxo