Newspapers, social media, television, and every local radio station are tuned in to one topic in Calgary: the 2013 floods. In fact, the word “flood” is starting to look funny in my eyes after seeing it so much. Conversations on the street are overwhelmed with “flood” “flooding” “evacuation” and various other terms and phrases that are all talking about the Southern Alberta 2013 flooding.
The tragedy is undeniable, the devastation immense, but in all this darkness, Calgary has come together. We’ve brought our own light. Many of you have probably heard stories about people reaching out, heroes helping others, and an unbelievable group of citizens ready to take a stand and lend a hand. When a call for 600 volunteers was issued for the stadium, a flabbergasting 7000 people showed up!
Through all of this, I’m starting to gain pride in my city :). Yes, there are still going to be those few people who aren’t willing to good, even those who may rather do bad. Price gouging, looting, and other crimes have arisen within all the chaos, but I think we are strong enough to look past that. I believe we need to lead by example.
Businesses and organizations have made an effort to support our city and it’s people too. Crave cupcakes is selling s’mores cupcakes and donating the funds to flood relief, Jelly Modern Doughnuts have been giving free donuts to volunteers and clean-up crews, yyc food trucks are having a fund raiser today… The list goes on! It seems nearly everyone is willing and wanting to help.
Now that we know our city is capable of doing such great things, and now that we have truly seen the tremendous size of Calgarians’ hearts, why not take it further? In my opinion, we’ve come face to face with a spark that could and should lead our city to be something special.
Maybe more of a community, more than just a geographical label.
This post was a lot of me sharing my random ideas and opinions. What are yours?
If you’re wanting to help, there are many different facebook pages and websites already formed to lead the way. Check out http://www.yychelps.ca. Or check out Wentao’s article, as he listed a lot of links.
Also, check out all the other Youth Are Awesome posts related to the flood: https://www.youthareawesome.com/tag/yycflood/
(photo from: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100511000678556&set=o.383943091710821&type=3&theater)