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Blog - 35 Million Canadians for Supper

August 31, 2009

On September 11th this year, President Obama is asking Americans to volunteer, making this year’s anniversary of the terror attacks the first National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Now it seems to me that we’d have a hard time harnessing that pride of community and pride of country if Mr. Harper stepped up to the microphone and declared a National Day of Volunteerism. I’m not suggesting that Mr. Ignatieff or Mr. Layton would inspire either, but I guess my point is that we, as Canadians, have a tendency to perpetuate that aw shucks attitude. We don’t seem to have that same sense of patriotism. And so that flag-waving, country-loving, rah rah (rightly or wrongly) doesn’t seem to resonate with Canadians.

But even if it happened. What would you do if 35 million Canadians showed up on your doorstep and wanted to volunteer? Is this something like the in-laws showing up at 4:30, pie in hand, and expecting supper? There are a few options.

1. You could give them $200, tell them to go buy paint and come back wearing paint clothes.
2. You could invite them in, put coffee on, and kick them out the door after an hour.
3. You could go to the peep hole and quietly look to see who’s there, pretending you’re not home.
4. You could have a plan in your back pocket in case something like this happens and you have just the right thing for them to do. (Or if this was your in-laws, you could have a casserole in the freezer just in case.)

What worries me about President Obama’s day is that millions of Americans are going to show up to volunteer in a few days and they’re going to be given option #3. And with the swiftness of one day, those same millions of Americans will be turned off of volunteering because their help wasn’t wanted.

So what has your organization done to prepare for the one day that 5, 50, 500, or 5,000 volunteers show up on your doorstep for supper? Are you ready?

Posted by: Scott | In: IVC

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