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Our amazing generosity
Is Canada supposed to be going through a “recovery” from a “recession”? Are we supposed to be collectively pulling in our horns, sticking our hands in our pockets, stashing our hard-earned cash under two or three mattresses? Are we supposed to be robbing the here and now with a jaundiced eye toward an uncertain future?
If all this is the economic reality of May 10, 1912, someone forgot to tell the people of Uxbridge. Because our reputation as a generous town is only being expanded these days. Just one example: back in October, the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario burned the mortgage on the church they’d only purchased five years before. Simultaneously, they managed to find the funds to not only fully restore and refurnish Maud’s Leaskdale home, but to stage a wildly successful international conference to celebrate the centennial of the author’s arrival in the Township.
This summer, it is highly likely that two competing youth-oriented projects, a splashpad beside the arena, and a new skatepark down on the Kennedy House property, will both begin construction. The funds required for each project are daunting, but that hasn’t prevented the Bonner Boys in the first instance, and the Rotary Club in tandem with the Youth Centre in the second, from garnering the required cash in a number of creative ways. And people keep coming forward with very impressive sums: the Rotarians with $75,000 for the skatepark, an individual family with $15,000 for the splashpad.
Another new initiative, the improved Uxbridge-Scugog Animal Shelter, is piling up the money so quickly, seemingly being the beneficiary of fundraisers large and small almost every week, that they’ve already selected an architect and set him to work. And it may be significant that the location of the new shelter will be in Uxbridge (as opposed to the old location in a Port Perry industrial park), perhaps indicating that we’re paying a greater share of the freight.
Even while all these new charitable projects are motoring along nicely, the traditional ones are also doing just fine, thanks. Early next month, for instance, the Cottage Hospital Auxiliary will be giving the hospital the largest cheque in its history. Similarly, the Jennifer Ashleigh Foundation had its single largest fundraising event ever a couple of weeks ago. The Uxbridge Public Library just had a phenomenally successful Book Lover’s Ball, well supported by a public who might be nervous about the potential cuts to library services by the Township.
Speaking of which, it seems a trifle ironic to us that at a time when governments at all levels are pinching their pennies, the man on the street, certainly the man and woman on Uxbridge’s Brock Street, seems to be taking up the slack.
Uxbridge has always been known for its generosity of heart. If you needed another example of that, the way people of all ages turned out to help search for a missing local youth a few months ago would be ample demonstration. But another tangible illustration of that generosity is the way we open our wallets and chequebooks to an array of worthwhile causes. We’re not the wealthiest community in the country, but it would be surprising if, per capita, we’re not among the most charitable.
July 14, 2011
