Mahatma Ghandi once said that “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.  The Fraser Valley then, can rest assured that our moral progress is quite far along when a place like Elizabeth’s Wildlife Center exists. Elizabeth and her volunteers work tirelessly to save and rehabilitate small animals that many of us may not think twice about.  We can all be grateful that she has followed her calling and created a haven for these defenseless creatures in our community.

Elizabeth is a Registered Nurse with a love for animals and a heart for the hurt and abandoned.  

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Most of us either know someone, have a friend of a friend, or have actually experienced the loss of a newborn baby.  It’s an incredibly heart-wrenching to go through, or to watch a loved one go through.  It’s especially hard to talk about after the fact.  A few months ago I had the privilege of attending a fundraiser in Aldergrove benefiting Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, aka NILMDTS.  I had no idea what I was in for.  From the moment the lights were dimmed and the multi-media presentation was shown to explain the purpose and mission of NILMDTS, I was crying my eyes out.

NILMDTS works with parents all over the continent who have lost their precious babies.  When it’s too late to do anything else, the photographers from NILMDTS come to the hospital to take keepsake photos of the child either alone, with the parents, or both.  

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With so much need in the world, I find myself wondering sometimes how I can possibly make a difference and then I meet someone like Ernie Jantzen.  Ernie is a can-do kind of guy and he inspires action in other people.  He’s the Founder of Clothes2U, an organization that collects not only clothes, but household goods, personal items…basically anything he can fit in his minivan, to distribute to low income individuals and families.

Seeing a need among single parent families, Ernie started collecting clothes in 2002 to distribute on his own.  Soon enough, the need far outweighed his time and resources as an individual and he started looking for venues to host events where he could give away lots of clothing and goods at once.

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Most people don’t know what they really, truly want in life. I know this because I ask whenever I get the chance.  It’s easy to see, though.  Whatever you spend the most time on, be it work, relationships, fitness, a cause, that is what’s most important to you, and that’s what you want. It’s not what you say… it’s what you DO.

So with that thought in mind, I’m writing this monthly Fraser Valley Charity Spotlight with the goal to inform and make relevant practical ways to impact the world around us. Because we can’t find important what we don’t know yet.  

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