International Women’s Day | Invest in Her

This International Women’s Day, invest in women; inspire inclusion! ‘Not sure where to start? Read on…

International Women’s Day | How investing in me changed everything

For most of our company’s existence we have been an all-women staff. Donate a Car Canada has a woman at the helm, and our core values ensure strength of community and empathetic donor care. Combine business savvy with kindness and you’ll accomplish so much good!

The foundations of our program create space for profound impact — by women and for women.

My own story has been strongly and broadly impacted by what can happen if you invest in women. Or, if you invest in just one woman.

I approached the work force with trepidation just over a decade ago. I’d been a stay home mom for almost twenty years by then. My choice to have children at a young age meant that I had never tackled post secondary schooling. Jobs had been intermittent and diverse. My priority was raising the kiddos; career came second.

Donate a Car Canada came to me as an off-handed recommendation. It was a work from home gig (long before that was commonplace) and the hours would be light. All I needed was a computer and the willingness to work. A short job interview with our sprightly, highly intelligent, and visionary boss and I was in! My life was about to change forever…

It’s never about just one gal!

Our boss absolutely took a chance in hiring me. While I’m a plucky thing with a wish to serve honestly and carefully, I came to Donate a Car with no formal administrative skills. I’d picked a few things up over years of home and community work, but I was verrrrrry green. The Boss wasn’t fussed for a minute. Training commenced…and here we are. Over 10 years later this company has invested in me again and again: bolstering me when I make errors, supporting me through life shifts and wobbles, and championing me in the things I love that are well outside of the company’s four walls.

This inclusion, investment, and ever-present support has plunked more than one brick into the foundation of my life.

I can draw a direct line between this job and finding the courage to go back to school.

There is a correlation between this work and how I have been with pursuing my own future.

If it wasn’t for this job, I would not have had the courage to start my own business. A business, it turns out, that is all about supporting women. Dozens of women. Women who, as they find their own courage, strength, and grounding go on to live their own lives in a supported way.

And so it goes.

Tend the heart, body, mind, community, soul of one woman and you will soon see an ever-widening ripple of creativity, sharing, support, financial grounding, and thriving community.

Honouring those who give this International Women’s Day

How I would love to splash the names of the many, many women who have affected my life all over this page. Teachers, nurses, doctors, financial advisors. Divorce mediators, spiritual directors, lawyers. And friends, friends, Friends. My life is a collection of the impacts made by so very many women. Women who have given of their time, skill, resources, humour, and good graces.

And in the vehicle donation world? We have the happy privilege of supporting hundreds of Canadian women in their generous efforts through donating their cars. They come to vehicle donation by way of struggle, caring, and, sometimes, convenience! Sometimes it’s as simple as clearing the driveway of an old junker. Often? Much, much more often? It’s about compassion and community.

Women donate their vehicles because they are moved to do so by love for their children, spouses, countless other loved ones, their critters, and the planet!

This International Women’s Day, we honour these women. Our wish? That they be met with the same attentive, intentional, faithful care and concern that they give away so freely.

And beyond our tiny little world of interconnecting, we would wish equality, inclusion, and safety for all women. For all women, in all lands. This IWD2024 we imagine a world free from domestic violence. We dream of a world where there is access to shelter, food and water, education, and good work for all. “Surely the earth can be saved by all the people who insist on love.” ~ Alice Walker