. The Satellite Pages - Issue 4

Coming Together is the Beginning,
Staying Together is the Progress

Working Together is SUCCESS

By: Joélle Rabu
Maple Sugar Festival Committee Member & Spokesperson

Greetings Satellite Members!

This page is dedicated to a distinct society,

a special breed of folks, a unique group of individuals.

This page is dedicated to our Maple Sugar Festival Volunteers

who are the backbone and success of this fabulous community event.

In this wonderful, rich country of ours, we have all we need yet we still find ourselves needing more. Budget
cuts, recessions, wars, government mismanagement, rising costs, all these things put a heavy financial
burden on the individual citizen in his day to day life.

To add to this encumbrance, there are the emotional demands: our kid needs help tying a shoelace, our dog
needs walking, our grand-mother needs a ride, our teacher needs an essay, our banker needs a payment.
Not to mention the constant barrage of advertising telling us we need to buy more, pay less, loose weight
and drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Oh, and don’t forget the required 8 hours of sleep. Sheesh! No
wonder we are stressed out!

And we are not alone in our individual needs. The nation is now also filled with organizations constantly
asking for help-free help. Schools need parents, cultural events need sponsorship, hospitals need
donations, the list goes on and on. One could become quite cynical and quite fed-up rather quickly. How
many of us are ready to put a sign on our forehead saying “No More Soliciting! No More Demands!”

But that’s not in our nature as human beings. Humans are a funny breed. We will complain about all the
above, but somehow we still wake up and give more of ourselves.

The proof is in our recent Maple Sugar Festival. Close to 300 people woke up one morning and after taking
care of life’s routine demands, decided to offer another chunk of themselves to their community. To these
people, Nanaimo joins me in bowing deeply in gratitude. You are angels to society, you are gifts to humanity,
you are Volunteers with a capital V. Volunteer is now my favorite word. In the dictionary it comes after the
words I, Me, Self, and comes before the words Why, What for, Who cares.

The Maple Sugar Festival was a huge success and achievement for our entire community. But our greatest
recompense will be seen in our children, when, in the years to come, they will be volunteers just like their
mom, dad, uncle, or grand-ma. They will remember the hard work, the long hours, the dedication, but more
importantly, they will remember the feeling of self-worth, traditions, commitment and being needed by
their community.

BEING NEEDED...I guess that’s just part of our quirky nature, n’est-ce pas?
We thank all of our amazing Volunteers

EVERY JOB YOU DID WAS A SELF-PORTRAIT
AND YOU AUTOGRAPHED YOUR WORK WITH EXCELLENCE.

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