Cleaning up the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami is a daunting task, but helping one water-damaged village somewhere in the devastation zone is manageable.
Coun. Jeff Dawson is leading an initiative to identify a village, raise money for that place and then rebuild the village through a reputable international aid agency.
"We are a community that has received the assistance and generosity of public, aid organizations and governments as a result of our own natural disasters," Dawson said. "We know the pain first hand; the flooding we were hit with last year in our community is still fresh in our memories. This is an opportunity for us to take the kindness we received and pass it along to help others."
Dawson received the full support of the rest of the council members to press ahead with his plan to hold an information meeting on Wednesday (Jan. 5) in the council chambers at Municipal Hall.
The meeting drew an overflow crowd of well over 125 people and reporters and television cameras from Vancouver.
"The obligation is not to do something," Dawson told the people packed into the council chamber for the adopt-a-village meeting. "It is to do whatever you can."
The Sea to Sky Community Services Society (STSCSS) is helping out by handling local donations to the initiative and writing tax receipts for those who donate.
Cheques made out to STSCSS can be mailed to Box 949 Squamish, V0N 3G0 and Wynne encouraged donors to put the word "tsunami" on the memo line of the cheque. The money will be placed into a trust fund and the STSCSS will not take any of the money to cover administrative costs, Wynne said.
"We are going to put together a game plan, a business plan and it is going to be effective," Dawson said.
He hopes the game plan will include raising $1 million over a number of years for the selected village. He broke that massive figure down to a manageable sum by pointing out that if the 17,000 people of 樱桃视频all donated $59 each there would be more than a million dollars in the fund.
Dawson encouraged everyone at the meeting to contact five people that didn't make it to the meeting and tell them what happened then suggest they get involved. He also asked that everyone contact friends and family outside of 樱桃视频and encourage those people to follow Squamish's lead by starting a similar initiative in their town or city. "Your dollars and energy and enthusiasm will carry this," Dawson said.
Based on the information left by the people at the meeting Dawson expects that a number of committees will come together to focus on specific areas of expertise like administration, fundraising, communications, planning, travel, physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, economic infrastructure, business revitalization, social services, health, transportation and other areas not covered by those headings.
After the meeting, Dawson said he was ecstatic with the turnout. He said that he was moved by the emotion in the room as he noticed that one woman had tears in her eyes at one point in the meeting."This has resonated and people won't sit idly by while suffering is taking place," he said.
A follow up meeting is set for Wednesday (Jan. 12) at 7 p.m. in the Sea to Sky Hotel.
The Sea to Sky Freenet has set up a website for information on the effort. It is now online at www.humanityvillage.squamish.ca.
