Let award recognize person of character in your community

YorkRegion.com
January 25, 2014
By Kim Zarzour

What kind of character did you encounter today?

Did someone cut you off in the parking lot? Neglect to hold the door open for you, or flip you the bird on your commute to work?

There’s an old saying: it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

You can bitch about the brutes around you, or you can shine a light on someone who’s doing it right.

Is there someone who has impressed you with their selflessness? Shown the kind of attributes you think this world needs more of - compassion, courage, integrity, perseverance?

You might want to tell York Region’s Character Community Foundation about it.

Each year, the foundation shines a spotlight on those around us who exemplify good character. Nominations are open from now until Feb. 10 for the 2014 celebration.

Those who have nominated good characters in the past say the experience was priceless.

Linda Potter has nominated York Region residents and last year she was thrilled to learn one of her nominees won.

The longtime Newmarket resident was inspired by the optimism and perseverance shown by Heather Cairns-Mills and Kevin Mills, two young paramedics who met with tragedy while on vacation in Cuba. Kevin became paralyzed when a crashing wave slammed him head-first into the sand, breaking his neck.

“It tugged my heart every time I thought about them,” Ms Potter says, explaining how the Mills learned of a promising new spinal cord injury recovery program in California called Project Walk and brought it to Canada.

They established the Walk it Off Spinal Cord Recovery Centre, a unique not-for-profit centre in Newmarket, hold an annual walk-and-roll fundraiser and have developed a spinal cord injury prevention and awareness program designed for youth, taught by youth.

“They both lost their jobs, lost everything, but here they are working for the betterment of their community,” Ms Potter said. “I’m so proud that we have this program in Newmarket and I wanted the rest of the community to know we have it here.”

That’s one of the payoffs for nominating a character award recipient, said Karen Addison, the foundation’s executive director.

The annual celebration event publishes a program with information about all the nominees and in doing so, spreads the good news across York Region. Those who nominate and those whose names are put forward are invited to the April 30 ceremony in Richmond Hill. All nominees are invited on stage and receive a plaque, while the winner is awarded a trophy.

“It’s almost as fun for a nominator as a nominee,” she said. “Not everyone wins but we hear time and time again that it was such an honour to be nominated.”

Juliet Irish, executive director of Doane House Hospice, nominated someone who won last year in the citizens of character, seniors category, Robert Bradley, a dedicated volunteer who drives clients for the Newmarket hospice.

It was a way to say thank you, she said, but also an inspiration.

“Sitting in a room with all those amazing people from across York Region that we might never have heard of, sharing information about what they do, that to me is a payoff for nominating someone,” she said.

The number of nominations has been increasing each year as word spreads, Ms Addison said. Last year, the foundation received 180 nominations, up from 135 the year before. “The venue (Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts) holds 595 people and it’s full.

“We’ve had a nice growth which I think is a combination of awareness of the character initiative in the region and the fact that people are taking the time to sit down and recognize work that is being done.”

Ms Addison said a recent survey showed the foundation’s work has spilled over into the broader community, as “Generation Y”, which for the past 12 years has been taught about character attributes, enters the business world.

“This may be challenging to some in the workforce who aren’t used to it, but young workers are used to giving back. Often they want to work for a company that has a social responsibility.”

It was gratifying to see the survey results, she said, because it’s hard to quantify something like character. Unlike organizations like United Way that can track progress of fundraisers on a barometer, “character is such an intangible thing”.

A few other regions have taken a similar approach to encouraging good character, including North Perth, Peel and a community in B.C. Ms Addison said York is leading the way with its broad-based approach.

And it shows, she added. Not only is York one of the safest regions in the country, she said, the recent ice storm - where neighbours cared for neighbours, opened their doors, provided warming centres, shared dinners and offered space to charge cell phones - was a region-wide example of character community in action.

“There are so many people out there in this community we don’t know about who are doing good things and most of them are humble,” said Ms Potter. “It’s so nice to talk about good news for a change.”

To learn more or find out how to nominate someone, go to charactercommunity.com