The Giving Effect – Give Where We Live

“Every act of giving inspires another.” (TELUS Give Where We Live – The Giving Effect)

Growing up, my grandparents taught us to help others whenever possible.  This practice has always been important to my family, and this is something I have noticed TELUS doing year after year with their Give Where We Live/TELUS Days of Giving campaigns.

The message and impact of TELUS’ Giving Effect hit close to home for me when I learned about Pinkies for Preemies and Giving Baby Francis a Chance.

On Remembrance Day of 2008, I gave birth to a preemie.  She was due in February of 2009, but was born at 28 weeks and weighed 980 grams at birth.  She spent the first seventy-two days of life in the NICU at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.  Those early days were a roller coaster of emotions.  Without the technology, medicine, and staff at Mount Sinai, I do not know where we would be with Little One today.  Things could have turned out much differently.

Not only is TELUS a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, healthcare, video, satellite and IPTV television, but it is also invested in community and environmental initiatives.

Though on the TELUS site, Pinkies for Preemies is “a small gesture to help save tiny lives”, as a mother of a preemie, I know that it’s actually a HUGE gesture.  The technology used in the NICU makes an incredible difference for the lives of parents and preemature babies.

I was overwhelmed when I read what TELUS was doing with their Pinkies for Preemies initiative.

Give Where We Live

As a #TeamTELUS Advocate, I am so excited to have the opportunity to give where we live.  Since my little family offers ongoing support to Mount Sinai because of our experience with Little One, we decided to do something completely different than our usual support for premature babies.  We also continue to support the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society, so we wanted something completely different from those important causes as well.  We really wanted to to make a difference in our community on Manitoulin Island.

The Giving Effect

There are so many causes I am passionate about.  Two things that are as important to me as family are community and education.

Assiginack Public School may be a small school in rural Northern Ontario, but it certainly has a lot of heart. The staff is incredible and there really is a sense of family and community.

Programs like music education and their new makerspace encourage creative and critical thinking.  It’s so important to support local schools.

I wanted to support one of our local schools and give where we live in whatever  capacity I could.

Then something else happened.

Last year, several communities on Manitoulin sponsored refugee families from Eritrea.  Excited that our community has reached out and worked together to welcome the Eritrean families, I knew that adapting to a new country, new culture, new lifestyle, and new language may not be an easy feat.  Having taught English as a Second Language from 1998 to 2012, I know the challenges learners of English as a second/forgeign language may face.

Having taught ESL in Japan (kindergarten, junior school, middle school, high school, adult classes, TOEFL, TOEIC, business, and travel English), and in Toronto (at two private language schools and then to new Canadian residents), I could see how support for English language learners was necessary.

Learners of English (as a second language) may face challenges with:

• Grammar
• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary
• Variations in English (formal and informal)
• Colloquialism (slang and idioms)

I was excited when the principal of Assiginack Public School said the school would use their donation toward an iPad and ESL apps for their English language learner program.

Technology & Education

The use of a tablet (like an iPad) in an ESL classroom can assist ESL educators through ESL apps with the goal to enhance literacy, listening, and speaking proficiency of ESL learners.

I’m so excited that with TELUS, we are able to make a difference in the education of some of the students.

I’m thankful for another year as a #TeamTELUS Advocate.  If you don’t already follow my fellow #TeamTELUS Advocate friends, head on over here and give them a follow. Looking forward to reading posts this year from Dai Manuel, Amber Mac, Audrée Archambault, Buzz Bishop, Canoopsy, Carol Gomez, Casie Stewart,  Erica Lam, Jessica Blumel, Josh Rimer, Julia Chiarella-Genoni, Savannah Jones, Sunny Lenarduzzi, and Tanya Toledano.

Disclosure – This post was written in affiliation with TELUS are part of their #TeamTELUS advocacy program. All thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.