A Month To Make a Difference

(April 15) - Guelph reads. Guelph writes. Guelph listens. Guelph plays. Guelph suffers. Guelph helps. Whether we are creating or consuming, we love our books and we love our music. When tragedy falls upon our friends and neighbours, we help relieve the pain. In the next few weeks we will see all this coming together in different ways.

Tomorrow evening is the third annual general meeting of the Friends of the Guelph Public Library. This year’s version of Guelph Reads is coming up on April 26. Earth Day is on April 22. The 24th annual day of mourning for workers killed or injured on the job is on April 28. Earlier this month, on April 5, some of our local musicians put on a special benefit concert for local artist Sue Richards. On May 8, more than 60 of Guelph’s authors and illustrators will be on hand for the second event marking our library’s 125th anniversary.

There’s an awful lot of literacy, musicianship and plain, old fashioned caring being packed into a month.

David Corks, the city’s Downtown Economic Development Manager, is the guest speaker at the Friends’ AGM tomorrow. He will speak about the plan and proposal for the development of the Baker Street parking lot, anchored by a new main library. He’ll listen to opinions and answer questions. So if you have any, it’s in the downtown library at 7:30.

Four local luminaries think they know of a book that everyone in Guelph should read. Local and international AIDS activist Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik thinks it is 28, a collection of stories by Stephanie Nolen about the severity of the epidemic in Africa. Local author Rozena Maart will tell you to read I Write What I Like by Steve Biko, a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Local author and member of the Order of Canada, Tom King, says you should read Urban Meltdown, a book about planning in an age of climate change. Our Chief Librarian, Norm McLeod, will urge you back to a time when climate change heralded the passing of the seasons. He thinks everyone ought to read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Four good books. Go down to the Guelph Youth Music Centre on April 26 and find out why you should read them all.

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That was the good news. Now some bad. In 2007, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board allowed 555 claims for workplace fatalities. There were 333,938 allowed claims for lost time workplace injuries and diseases. Just in Ontario. The Parkinson Society of Canada estimates that about 100,000 Canadians have Parkinson’s disease. That’s a lot of sorrow falling down on a lot of families.

The local labour council puts on a commemorative event every year in Goldie Mill Park. This year it is at 5:00 p.m. on Monday April 28. All workers have a right to health and safety. They should go home at the end of a shift in the same shape as they went to work. Too many don’t. It doesn’t matter if you are in a union or not. Go to Goldie Mill and let the local labour people know you appreciate what they are doing to make work safer.

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Of all the Canadians with Parkinson’s, one started the Breast of Canada calendar to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. Sue Richards also started Art Jam, a community arts project. She was a founding member of the Hillside festival. She is a decent human being who needs help. Her friends are rallying around to bring it to her. Some put on a benefit concert a couple of weeks ago. There’s another concert coming on May 2 to raise money for another local artist, Robert Howson, who has been diagnosed with cancer.

When I think of these situations, I am aware that too many people in our world are sick. Too many families are suffering with little or no help. I am also reminded of the tale about a young woman walking on a beach, throwing starfish back into the ocean. When asked what difference this could make when so many fish were washed up on such a large beach, she said: “it made a difference to that one.”

So go and find your starfish to help. There’s lots to choose from.