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Uvalde. Are you feeling as speechless and heartbroken as I? Are you making any sense of it for yourself? We are not powerless. Here is one way of being with numbing tragedy that hits close even when it happens far away.
Uvalde – Today’s reminder that we are all connected
Given the parameters of our work here at Donate a Car Canada, we have no wish to weigh in on the politics of anything. ‘Certainly not on the gut-wrenching Awful of the Uvalde school shooting. I saw a graph of what has been happening with school shootings in the the United States last night. It is confounding. Appalling. So many babies lost. So, I weep. And I get rage-y. But I also get curious about how to respond in ways that are just. Meaningful. Active. Right here in my own beautiful country.
In our little bubble of caring work here, we are so, so lucky! We see the scope of Good Work that Canadian charities lovingly engage in. We know that there are volunteers and paid workers toiling and serving and creating every day. They are applying themselves with so much heart to the very work that saves the lives of children. The people at the helm of our participating charities help make sense of the senseless.
The experience of suffering is something that connects us. Headline news (war, economic crisis, pandemic, and violent acts) is certainly a shared and collective trauma. And we each experience that suffering in our own ways.
One way to be with headlining tragedy
Do you ever feel a bit powerless in the face of heartbreaking news like that out of Uvalde? Or, do events like the Uvalde violence (or Buffalo’s just a hearbeat before that…not to mention the Ukraine), leave you with an angry energy that needs an outlet?
I understand those feelings, too. The rage and wish and empathy and indignation. Maybe you have robust ways of tending to those things in yourself? For myself, some rhythms of contemplation, mindfulness, and physical exercise help. Those practices can help with my own mental-emotional-spiritual health.
But sometimes we need to DO something. We need to help. Making some kind of contribution in a tangible way feels so important. Helping in practical ways seems to help our internal processing of impossibly big feelings about these kinds of circumstances.
I cannot help the grieving families in Uvalde. My reach for providing real assistance in the Ukraine is limited.
I can help here. At home. I can support teachers and care givers. My volunteerism and donating might aid distress lines or hand-up services for youth in crisis. By educating myself I can expand reach and understanding around issues of inclusion and equality. My practice of caring can chip away at barriers to mental health care and compassion for those who are chronically ill.
We can get involved
If you are doing your bit of good, and I am doing mine, will we build a healthier society? Overall? Or, at least, a gentler Canada? I’ll do my bit for empathy and dignifying inclusion. You do the same in the ways that feel alive and true for you. And soon, between you, me, and the people we love, might we find ourselves in a world where one child does not feel their only course of action is to take the lives of other little ones?
We are set up to partner with ANY Canadian charity. If you pop over to CanadaHelps and explore their charity list, you’ll find we can work on behalf of all of those charities, too!
Pick a cause. Perhaps, for today, it will be a cause that is shaping the lives of children and care givers and teens? Through music, sport, employment services, or distress care, we turn our attention to Canada’s unique needs and give there. In this way, might we bear witness to our connection to Uvalde?
We have so many children’s charities to choose from. If you would like to attend to your need to help by donating a car, here is a short list to get your creative giving juices flowing? Consider,
| Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre |
| Canadian Feed the Children |
| CityKidz Ministry CityKidzOttawa |
| Development and Peace – Caritas Canada |
| Kids Help Phone |
| Kids Now |
| KidSport Canada |
| Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre |
| OrKidstra |
| The Cridge Centre for the Family |
| Youth Employment Services/ YES MB. Inc. |
What happens when you donate a vehicle?
When you donate your car, truck, van, SUV, or motorcycle, the net proceeds go to your cause. You fill out a 5 minute online form. We arrange your free tow. Your charity receives the funds, and you get a tax receipt.
We know this won’t right terrible wrongs like the parade of awful we see in the headlines these days. But your giving does seed Goodness. Caring. A commitment to acting on empathy. And that is a kind of justice all its own. The kind that invites another such action, and then another, and then one more. And that’s where we’re at with this today: I’ll do what I can. You do what you’ve got it in you to do. We’ll take care of each other. One loving act at a time.
