Picture two parents and three toddlers sprawled out across the living room, each one too sick to move other than to be ill, reach for another tissue, or take a sip of some electrolyte drink to replenish what had been lost. This was US, last cold & flu season – for an entire week! I don’t think we’ve ever been in a worse, more helpless position as parents. We were too sick ourselves to even venture out to replenish the needed supplies. If it weren’t for two amazing friends who delivered suppliers to our doorstep, we’re not sure what we would have done.
Out of that, came the idea to do some good and spread some love for other sick parents and families. What if we used our newly formed non-profit organization – Parenting 101 – and distributed Cold & Flu Survival Kits?!?
But how would we acquire the items needed for these kits?
Last month Interior Savings held their “Day of Difference” and launched the $10,000 Local Give campaign where they awarded $100 to 100 people to do some local good, and I was one of the lucky applicants selected! Immediately, I knew the money needed to go to Parenting 101 to build these Cold & Flu Survival Kits and distribute them around the community to sick parents and families. But was $100 going to be enough?
As I walked out of the Interior Savings, I glanced around the parking lot. There was a Save-On-Foods to my left and an I.D.A. pharmacy to my right. Would they match the donation to help build MORE Survival Kits?
Almost without hesitation, THEY DID! I now had $300 to give away from local businesses that supplied all of what I needed to make this dream come true, minus one important item; probably the most vital item to have when you’re sick: Homemade Chicken Soup.
I knew who made the best chicken soup in town: Bamboo Chopsticks Vietnamese Restaurant. All it took was a quick email to the owner explaining the idea and I had soup – another $100 worth of it!
So, with that, I presented my $400 of donations for the #localmoneylocalgood campaign to Parenting 101 and we started building Cold & Flu Survival Kits - 20 of them to be exact complete with an Okanagan Family Magazine. I can’t begin to describe the feeling of excitement I got knowing that I took the initial $100 from Interior Savings and multiplied it into $400! Instead of positively affecting ONE person we would be helping TWENTY!
Getting sick is horrible at the best of times. It’s even tougher when there are little kids in the picture, and I can’t imagine it getting any worse than if you catch a cold or flu during the “most wonderful time of the year”! Maybe this year, these Cold & Flu Survival Kits will do some good for local parents in our community and help them see that “the village” does still exist, and that there are some of us still looking out for each other!
If you know of a deserving (sick) family, please nominate them prior to Friday, December 7th on Parenting 101’s Facebook Page as the team is eager to distribute the Survival kits!