My Christmas gift was used to purchase a new pot for our church’s soup luncheon which I put on every Wednesday. As you know, I undertook last year to carry on with this lunch for the elderly and needy. For $3.00 per person I serve cheese and crackers, grapes and fruit, freshly baked rolls with butter, a hearty homemade soup and dessert. The pot I was using always burned, so, with the money from Brendan Wood International and a matching donation of my own I purchased a Paderno pot which will hold soup for sixty to seventy people.

Verla Moore & Larry Himmelfarb

The response I get from the people who come is so heart warming! One man who is 95 comes every week with his sister who is 99. They are both widowed. I received the most beautiful letter from them saying how much this meant to them. It is their only outing all week.

Diana and John Weatherall

Your wonderful tradition of giving to many needy people or causes brought such an expression of cautious joy to Carol Ann’s face that I almost wept. She, along with her husband and 3 children had just come off welfare. Doug had a job, they had just moved into a farmhouse on Wolfe Island which we owned.

I was visiting to measure for new carpets and to inspect the paint job, and learned that the painter had given them some sheets and also supplied some fire wood as well as telling them where to find more. The children were busy showing me the Christmas decorations. Such a feeling of happiness in the house.

“Your wonderful tradition of
giving to many needy people or
causes brought such an expression
of cautious joy.”

We were talking by the window that looked out on a long white field, and I told her that there would be an amount of money for them on account (the BWI donation) at Fargoes Grocery Store. She was very quiet and then said, “For emergencies?” If you want to save it for that, but it’s there for you at any time to use as you wish. I think she said something like this is amazing, but it was her face that said it all.

Thank you all at Brendan Wood International, it was so good to be able to do this as it was something that wasn’t from us as the redoing of the farmhouse was quite extensive and it would have been hard to do more.

Mary and Joel Rochon

Thank you for inviting us to be part of the Lazarus Partners Christmas Event. It was a unique display of pressing needs and generous giving at Christmas time – the power of an idea put into action before our eyes. We passed along the BWI cheque to a particularly needy Philippino woman and her two small children.

“Powerful ideas ricochet around
and make little miracles happen.”

Brendan, your powerful ideas ricochet around and make little miracles happen. For example, Mary and I were very recently involved introducing Dignitas International at our parish Church at the Newman Center at the University of Toronto. One of our parishioners, Dr. Rouleau, works on the medical team with Dignitas in Malawi. We hadn’t heard of Dignitas before, but were attracted by the fact that any money raised would be taken directly to Malawi by Dr. Rouleau. Mary developed a “gift certificate” giving examples of what donations would purchase (ie. $50 buys a bicycle so the team can travel out to sick people, $30 feeds a child for a year, etc). The idea is to give the gift certificate to a friend, saying that instead of a gift for them, you would be sending the dollars as a gift to Dignitas – in their name. The parishioners in our chapel were moved by Mary’s presentation of the idea and bought certificates to the tune of about $5,000. To our surprise and delight, and quite by accident, Dr. James Orbinsky, the President of Dignitas was seated next to us at the Lazarus Partners dinner. Of course, some would say this was a coincidence, but maybe, just maybe, it was a little miracle. Well, we thought it was. Lazarus Partners and Dignitas are two great ideas that continue to ricochet around and touch people. And the world is a better place because of it.

Mary & Joel Rochon