Generosity

I have always tried to teach my sons generosity and compassion by example. There are no tests, no report cards, no way to measure whether these lessons are learned. I believe that my children’s generosity will surface when they are ready—true generosity cannot be compulsory. Nothing prepared me for the level of generosity that my oldest son would display--at just seven years of age.

I am a recreational runner. There are many reasons I run, however one of them is the opportunity it gives me to raise money for causes that are important to me. It’s not something I realized my son was aware of until I asked if he wanted to run in the 2010 Ottawa Kids’ Marathon.

The Ottawa Kids Marathon is a fantastic way to promote fitness in kids. Kids are expected to log 41kms (usually 30minutes activity= 1km) and then run the last 1.2km on the same day as the Marathon on Ottawa Race Weekend. Zachary has often expressed interest in running with me, and he was up for the challenge. Zachary chose to run every kilometre.

What came next surprised me. “Who do I raise money for?”

Although he didn’t have to raise money for this race, yet he insisted that he wanted to. We went online and investigated the official charities associated with Ottawa Race Weekend 2010. Although all were fabulous charities who do excellent work, none resonated with him. So, after some discussion, Zachary chose to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).
Suddenly he was a man on a mission! We created a Facebook group. We filmed a video of him and posted it. We sent emails. Zachary set what I thought was a lofty goal of $500.

So he raised money, and he ran. And he stuck to it. Soon he was able to run up to about 3.5km!!

And my shy, reserved boy was asking anyone he knew if they would donate.
I was amazed when he reached his goal. I was stunned when he raised $700. I was overjoyed when he reached $1000. And I was moved to tears when on a sunny Friday in May, Zachary walked into the offices of the CHEO Foundation and handed them donations totalling $1318.

Inevitably, countless people said to us “You must be so proud”, and we were. How could we not be? But most importantly is that he was proud of himself. Countless lessons were learned in those short few months. I am still amazed at what he taught me.

Jessica