It’s Worth It
Sorry for being so quiet lately, folks, but being out of work again (damn place shut down just after they called me back from layoff…) means that I don’t have a hell of a lot of time to devote to the site lately. Every now and then, though, I do manage to stumble across something that isn’t just worth posting, it’s also a short enough post to type out that I can afford the time to do it.
I could go on more, but I’ll just let the Ottawa Sun’s Earl McRae tell it in his own words. Get your wallets out, kids, this is worth it…
Who’ll jump into the trenches for our noble vets?
Earl McRae
Wed, July 18, 2007You are to be congratulated. Those of you who care and appreciate what our veterans of World War II did for the freedom and life you enjoy.
Those of you who realize that donating towards the cost of constructing a smoking room for them at the Perley and Rideau Veterans Health Centre is an absolutely infinitesimal reciprocation in comparison.
These aged, frail, Canadian patriots — once young and so brave — who fought in the most hellish conditions to preserve our way of life, and this new battle by us, for them, is the least we can do.
But just as they resolutely fought and didn’t give up, you, too, now need to show what Canadian stuff you are made of on their behalf by catapulting their drive to raise $70,000 over the top before the cold, harsh weather and, once again, they, the ones who smoke, are forced outside to indulge one of the few pleasures they have in the twilight of their years.
Men and women in their ’80s, even ’90s, who once proudly volunteered to wear the military uniform of their country for war against tyranny, and who now live at the Perley and Rideau, and who smoke, as is their choice, as is their right, as it was for the majority of their generation.
Only the brain-dead, self-righteous, fools among us would regard them as of lesser moral fibre, and to be socially shunned, because they partake in what is not illegal, and if that’s your feeling, I’d like to hear your smoking views on Albert Einstein, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Ravel, John Lennon: But a few of the greats in history who were inveterate smokers.
Last fall, because of Gord Bunke, a regular visitor at the Perley and Rideau who informed me of the situation, I began a campaign, through my column, of publicly raising the engineer-report-estimated $70,000 for the room that would be renovated to meet the stringent security and ventilation standards of the provincial government for facilities such as the Rideau and Perley.
The centre’s board of directors approved the project, but said it didn’t have the money, that the vets would have to fund it themselves. The vets — on small, fixed, pensions, not at all wealthy.
Hear me out, you who care, and have donated, you who should care, and haven’t donated.
Victory for our vets is close. The final push is on. Paul Finn, head of the Perley and Rideau Foundation, says $58,000 has been donated/pledged by individual donors, businesses and area Legion branches. Only $12,000 away from victory.
Says Finn: “There’ve been individual donations from $5 and $10, right up to $1,000 and more. Lorenzo’s Restaurant (on Arch St.) donated $3,000. It’s all saying to the vets ‘You did so much for us, we’ll do this for you’.”
Greg Fougere, executive director of the health centre, is hoping work on the room can begin in August to open in the early fall. “Before the bad weather comes.”
It has been a slow, tough, slog to win this war for our vets. Not unlike some of the battles they waged in World War II.
The emergence of a sugar daddy would be nice. Someone of heart willing to make a sizeable, vanquishing, donation, so that our precious vets are not again made to go outside to endure the elements.
Fougere says the word will go out to different contractors in the field, but reveals the job does not have to be tendered. “If a contractor came to us with an offer, we’d certainly be open to listening. This can be done for $70,000 to meet requirements, and we’re going to do it.”
And, I say, even better if a contractor dug into the goodness of his heart and offered to absorb or reduce normal costs in the interest of the great and noble cause.
Won’t you fall in behind the vets in the final assault? Please. You are needed.
Send your cheques, your money — and specify it’s for the vets’ smoking room — to Paul Finn, managing director, Perley and Rideau Veterans Health Centre Foundation, 1750 Russell Rd., Ottawa, ON K1G 526. Paul Finn’s phone number: 613-526-7173.
