Thinking about being an Agent of Hope

Met another really interesting guy over the weekend. His name is Ian Hill and he was one of the Keynote speakers at the AAASE convention in Edmonton. AAASE stands for Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies and Exhibitions and more than 250 Ag Societies were represented by more than 550 delegates from all corners of the province. There were six members from the Bonnyville Ag Society who traveled in to take in the AGM as well as various breakout sessions discussing everything from board governance to writing proposals and helping to make your community a better place in which to live.

That brings me back to my first sentence and Ian Hill. What impressed me most about Ian is that he's just an ordinary guy like the rest of us. Except, there is a fire that burns inside him that makes him want to make the world a better place. Sounds like a tall order but he shared his passion with us and I believe that we can be his messengers of hope. Now I know this sounds like I'm becoming a religious fanatic. It has nothing to do with that but it does mean reaching out to people in your community to build a strength and focus of mission that can bring all elements into alignment. Let me explain.

So many clubs. Which way are they going?

There are many organizations in our town. All of them have honourable goals and dreams. Their dreams are pointing them in a certain direction and often in parallel directions of other organizations. Each organization or club needs money, volunteers, facilities and recognition. Proposals are written, sponsorship sought, events planned and run off and volunteers are exhausted. Many stay on because they don't know who else will do it. Others drop off because they are burned out or there has been friction and they start to drift away. Even with grants, there never seems to be enough funds and we get locked into the ongoing effort to raise more and more dollars and finally we fade away because we just can't do it anymore.

Every club chases the same funding pot (this includes government, sponsors and the like and they each get a little piece with some of them getting more than the others because their proposal might be a bit better or they are better connected.  What would happen if everyone could get the same or as much as they needed to carry out their programs and what if they all had enough volunteers to bring off their events or programs and what if the load was shared equally so that everyone enjoyed the fun of volunteering and serving the community.  Sound like utopia? Hard to achieve? Perhaps not. (Think of the Edmonton Community Foundation) http://www.ecfoundation.org/  It was started in 1989 with donations from  John and Barbara and George and Rae Poole and Robert and Shirley Stollery ($5 million each) and has since grown to more than $250 million.

Doesn't it make more sense to refocus, form some new partnerships, find more people who care or who want to learn and grow a community pot of resources of both people and funds. Wouldn't you be more likely to participate if you knew that the project had a beginning and an end rather than an interminable search for money or people? Wouldn't you participate more readily knowing that others were willingly participating and that the end goal benefited more people? Wouldn't it be exciting if everyone in the community took up the challenge and set about creating a self-sustaining pool of resources that groups and individuals could draw from?

Think about this for a moment; instead of each organization or club pursuing bits of grants or sponsorship what about a concerted effort by all to go after a much larger pool of money and with that money create a community fund that would attract donations from events, corporate sponsors, estates, legacy funds and donations from individuals. What about creating a pool of volunteers so that each event could call on this people resource to share the load. What about reaching out to those in the community who may have an interest but were worried that if they stepped up that they would be committed to belonging and having to work at a particular cause for ever. There is Hope that we can change that.

We can do all this because Ian Hill said we can. He said we can accept the challenge to become agents of hope in our communities. Hope for better facilities, hope for better assistance to the needy, infirm or disenfranchised. Hope for a better education for our children, Hope for safety in our homes and on the street, Hope for a fresh and adequate water supply, Hope for a community that is vibrant with artistic endeavors? Hope for an active business community where our young people want to stay or return to work or become entrepreneurs or teach or farm or volunteer or the hundreds of things that goes into making a community vibrant.  We can all be agents of Hope.

Start today not by asking but by chatting to your neighbors, friends, even strangers  about what their goals, dreams and aspirations are for the community. You will be amazed to find that there is Hope in the community and that we can achieve those dreams and aspirations together. Think of these arrows  on the left as all of the clubs and organizations in our town aiming for a common goal, with the combined strength of many and what could be accomplished.

Are You Ready to Be an Agent of Hope?

A bit about Ian Hill. 
Humanitarian, Business Leader, and Award Winning Philanthropist, these are some of the words that are often used when referring to Ian Hill.  Whether running a multi-million dollar business operation with over 1000 employees, to spearheading first of their kind life-changing community projects, to a unique Canadian-wide initiative. Ian Hill has been recognized for being a catalyst for positive change throughout North America.
Today, Ian’s main focus is his humanitarian effort, “Let Them Be Kids”, of which he is the founder and volunteer CEO. Let Them Be Kids is a Canadian wide all volunteer non-profit organization created to build stronger communities on the grassroots level, while building playgrounds and skate parks in areas of need.  http://www.ltbk.ca/kids/
In 2010, Ian’s Let Them Be Kids program has already impacted some 70 Canadian communities this year alone.
Ian has been recognized for his commitment to positive change by the National Council for Community and Justice and the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, which both named him Humanitarian of the Year. The Stand for Children Organization named Ian its Child Advocate of the Year, and most recently Canadian business legend Harry Rosen presented Ian with the Adler Business leader’s award.  http://www.thechangingpoint.com/

If you would like to hear more about Ian Hill or think that it would be valuable to bring him to town, contact me by commenting below or by contacting the Bonnyville Ag Society at 780-826-3240.