Martin Parnell

I’ve just finished reading Me to We by Craig and Marc Kielburger.

It was recommended to me by Mary Lou at Bentleys Books in Cochrane and it’s very powerful.

You may remember hearing about Craig.

In 1995, when he was 12, the Thornhill, Ont., boy saw a newspaper headline that read “Battled child labour, boy, 12, murdered.”

The accompanying story was about a young Pakistani boy named Iqbal Masih who, at the age of four, was forced into bonded labour in a carpet factory. By the age of 12, he had become an international figurehead for the fight against child labour. He was brutally murdered in 1995.

Angered by the article, Craig began researching child labour. He took the newspaper clipping to school and, together with some of his friends, founded a group called the Twelve-Twelve-Year-Olds. This evolved into Free The Children, an international organization that now has 45 countries participating in helping the plight of children around the world.

A section of the book discusses the link between helping others, gratitude and empathy resulting in increased happiness and improved health for the giver. In the book they highlight the impact adults have on children:

“When values learned in childhood last a lifetime, it’s clear that the world’s most powerful people aren’t presidents and CEOs. They’re the parents and teachers who interact with children every day and shape the values the young will carry with them through to adulthood.”

It got me thinking about Marathon Quest 250. People have donated $317,000 so far to help kids they don’t even know.

Two eight year olds, Jillian Sanborn and Treyton Winkler from Elizabeth Barrett School in Cochrane, donated their birthday money to allow disadvantaged kids to have a Right To Play program.

During the Marathon Quest 250 year I ran with more than 12,000 kids and time and again they wanted to know how to help.

They were very creative with their fundraising ideas.

Jillian Sanborn donated her birthday money to the Right to Play organization, which Martin Parnell raised more than $300,000 for last year by running 250 marathons so children in Third World countries could have access to sports. Photo courtesy of Martin Parnell

I received e-mails telling me about the lemonade stands they had set up, the bake sales they’d held and the “Wall of Loonies” they had posted.

The Kielburgers talked about connecting with your community and getting to know people in your neighbourhood.

It said you could make a difference the next time you walked out the door. So on Monday, as I headed out for my daily run I decided to give it a try. The opportunity arose in the first 100 metres.

Many mornings last year, I had passed a woman in a yellow fleece using hiking poles. Rain or shine she would be walking up and down the path.

I’d always say hi, but never stopped. I was too busy doing other things, like looking at my running watch for my heart rate or pace. Today I stopped and introduced myself. She said her name was Florence and she walks six days a week taking Sunday off. She asked if I was OK after all the running last year and I said I was doing good. We said our goodbyes and we both headed off. Now that’s Me to We.

© 2011 Martin Parnell

mjparnell@shaw.ca

www.marathonquest250.com

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