In Toronto They Stay Up All Night BEGGING...

...but in Madison, Wis.

The little library that could. . .

Comments (6)

Leslie Scrivener Feature Writer

On Felton Place, a residential street in Madison, Wis., there is a very small library holding about 20 books. Not much bigger than a bird house, the little library is of rustic construction. A door adds to the charm and to the notion that the books are to be valued and protected.

It belongs to retired professor Marshall Cook and his wife Ellen. Within three kilometres of their house, there are a dozen more little libraries, each with an ever-changing assortment of books.

Look at the titles. There’s something for everyone. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I’m a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson, Pippi in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren and even Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul IV.
It’s based on the pay it forward principle. Take a book, leave a book.

The Cook’s library is part of the Little Free Library project to spread tiny libraries and the love of reading around the United States and beyond. The project started in 2009, the idea of Wisconsin men Rick Brooks and Todd Bol, two recession-era Andrew Carnegies.
“A book shelf where you share books is a great idea,” says Brooks, 55, “but these little houses for books appeal to people’s emotional needs for friends and neighbours, a sense of community and feeling that we are all in this together.”

He adds: “Go to a bookstore, there are so many books it’s overwhelming.”

Still, the turnover in a little library can be impressive. At a Little Free Library outside the Indie Coffee shop in Madison, more than 1,000 books have changed hands since November. Most little libraries are in public areas, though some are also in front yards.

Little libraries are not a dustbin for a reader’s discards. “Don’t think of this as a way to get rid of your books,” says Brooks, “but to share your favourite books or those that may have changed your life.”

Bol, a 63-year old who travels around Wisconsin with a trailer full of little libraries, says people are often reluctant to sell their books. “But when they share books they are sharing something of themselves.”

The little libraries cost about $350. They can be ordered or built do-it-yourself from architectural plans. The men have built about 100, most in the Madison area, but they have had 42,000 inquiries, including some from Canada.

Here in Toronto, where threats of closures and reduced services threaten one of the most successful library systems in the world, little libraries may be just the thing. We could see them strung like little hobbit houses along the bike paths or in parks or outside the houses of public-spirited citizens and officials.

The mayor might even want a no-frills little library stocked with belt-tightening titles for everyone’s edification: Profit Building: Cutting Costs Without Cutting People; The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook; Rethink: A Business Manifesto for Cutting Costs and Boosting Innovation and, of course, Small is Beautiful.

For more information, visit littlefreelibrary.org

I'm Not An NDP Supporter By Any Stretch BUT...

...Cathy Crowe has paid her dues and her efforts over the years in helping the less fortunate should be repaid by the voters.

NDP candidate sensing victory in Toronto-Centre

Or, will she have to eat Crowe in Thursday byelection?

By JONATHAN JENKINS, Queen’s Park Bureau

Cathy Crowe smells an upset in Toronto-Centre.
“I’m getting prepared for a win,” the New Democrat said of Thursday’s byelection to replace former deputy premier George Smitherman at Queen’s Park.
“It’s certainly a neck-and-neck race. It may surprise some of you but that’s what I’m hearing at the door.”
Smitherman held the downtown riding for a decade and built a formidable and well-funded machine for the governing Liberals before opting to run for Toronto mayor this fall.
Defending the seat for Dalton McGuinty’s party is former Winnipeg mayor and president of the Canadian Urban Institute Glen Murray.
Crowe, a street nurse and homeless advocate with a high profile in Toronto-Centre’s less affluent south, said she has found the riding has grown weary of the Liberal-Conservative dichotomy and wants something new in an elected representative.
“The overarching sentiment is that the Conservatives had a number of years and the Liberals then had six more,” she said. “(Voters) use the word change, they want change.”
Not surprisingly, Murray says he has seen none of the anger or concern over such issues as the impending Harmonized Sales Tax or the Salvation Army pulling out of running the Grace Health Centre, as the NDP say they have found.
“It’s the biggest red herring,” Murray said of worries about the Grace, which he said were whipped up by a “desperate NDP.”
“The whole thing was ridiculous, quite frankly.”
Murray said that people he talks to are more interested in the redevelopment of Regent Park, expansion at Ryerson University and what he said was an $85-million increase to St. Michael’s hospital budget.
“We’ve never seen this kind of investment and real people when you knock on real doors are feeling very good about that and are very excited,” Murray said, adding he expects his toughest competition to come from Progressive Conservative candidate Pamela Taylor.
“I think we’re going to win Thursday but I always run like I’m in second place. As long as you run like you’re in second place, you’re more likely to come out in first place.”

Some Practical Socialism

The title defines the concept and the story defines how the left views practical socialism; "Giving to the needy is a great idea as long as it is someone else giving!"

Some practical socialism

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign the read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed--just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need-- the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

Source

A Template For Social Activism

You won't find a better model than Pat Capponi who for decades has been putting the interests of others first......she has GAINED the respect of those who can help her meet her goals.

Open minds meet in Parkdale TheStar.com - comment - Open minds meet in Parkdale

January 30, 2008

Carol Goar

The police call them EDPs.

That stands for emotionally disturbed persons. They can be suicidal, delusional, caught in a horrific flashback, lashing out wildly or cowering in terror. Their language may be garbled. Their physical strength can be enormous.

The thing is, they're sick. They're not criminals.

Close to 60 episodic EDPs – individuals with a range of mental disorders – showed up at the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre last week for a two-hour meeting with Toronto police.

The turnout was remarkable, considering the tense relations between psychiatric survivors (as they prefer to call themselves) and the police. What was even more remarkable was the openness on both sides.

Much of the credit goes to Pat Capponi, who organized the meeting. The author, anti-poverty activist and psychiatric survivor has a huge network of friends and contacts on the streets, in the rooming houses, at the drop-in centres and at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. If she says it's safe to come, they come.

More

Things Will Start Happening As Soon As It Gets Warmer

Do It NOW!

Need a little inspiration to get off your ass and change the world? Local activists show us how it’s done.

PAUL TEREFENKO

Full Story

Coming As Soon As The Weather Gets Warmer....

Do It NOW!

Need a little inspiration to get off your ass and change the world? Local activists show us how it’s done.

PAUL TEREFENKO

We Don't Hear Enough Success Stories

The youth program that worked

An Unsung Canadian Activist

Lauryn Oates: Blacklisted by the Taliban at age 14

For Oates, it was just the start of a career as a self-described "shit disturber." She contacted Amnesty International, which led her to a fledgling group called Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. They asked her to open a Vancouver chapter, not realizing that Oates was only 16.

That's from a profile of Lauryn Oates in today's 24 Hours, a Vancouver daily newspaper.

In the past ten years, Oates and the brave crew from W4WA have done more for the women of Afghanistan, and more for the people of Afghanistan, and more for the cause of peace and progress in Afghanistan, than the entire "activist" community in Canada, combined. And yes, I'm afraid I am referring to the so-called "anti-war" movement.

For glimpse of the way feminists like Oates - in this case, Sally Armstrong - are often received by "anti-war" activists, have a look at this.

There's much optimistic talk these days about the possibility for a negotiated solution with the Taliban. Lauryn's essay last year in the Globe and Mail remains, in my view, the most salient analysis on the question.

I was honoured to have joined Lauryn in a public debate on the Afghanistan question in Vancouver earlier this year. More here.

It Is Not Social In-Activists, Politicians, Etc. Who Change The World

It is the individuals who work at helping one person.......

Lloyd for prime minister One thing's for sure, we'd have a country we could all be proud of

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN

Choosing a premier is important. So is choosing a mayor or prime minister.

But ultimately, politicians don't decide the kind of country we will have.

They can point the way, but we decide. All of us.

We decide, in the words of Martin Luther King, whether we will judge our fellow citizens by the colour of their skin, or the content of their character.

We decide whether to welcome the majority of immigrants who come here with good intentions, or to shun them all because of the minority who don't.

We decide, whether, when an innocent black boy is gunned down inside a high school in Jane-Finch, it touches us as much as when an innocent white girl is gunned down at Yonge and Dundas.

Finally, we decide if we will try to do something about it -- no matter how overwhelming the problems may seem, or how powerless we feel.

Lloyd Seivright, born in Jamaica, an immigrant to Canada, made his decision a long time ago. He decided King's dream was his dream. That he would honour his adopted country of Canada by living the motto of his birthplace of Jamaica -- out of many, one people.

So did the handful of volunteers of the organization he founded with his wife, Madaine -- the Independent United Order of Solomon. Ordinary people -- Lloyd works in a warehouse -- who believe, as all the world's great religions teach, that God does not ask us to help one another. He commands it.

And that the purpose of helping others is not to make us feel good about ourselves -- that is the byproduct -- but to lift others up so that one day, they will pay our generosity forward to others.

HELP ONE PERSON

Find one person, help one person. Then we don't have to change the world. By helping one person, and then another, and another, we change ourselves.

I've written about Lloyd and his still-small group before, how they today, astoundingly, donate a million dollars worth of medical supplies annually to more than 40 countries, starting with Canada.

How they provide, through corporate sponsors including Sun Media, 10 annual university scholarships to deserving students from Canada and the Caribbean. How they sponsor an annual Christmas party for families in need, of all colours, in Toronto.

On Saturday, Sept. 29, Lloyd's group will hold its 29th annual fundraising dinner at The Shriners Auditorium, 3100 Keele St., starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $50. If you come, I know it will make you feel better about our city, province and country. The evening isn't fancy, but you'll see a room full of people whose better angels are at work. Lloyd can be reached at 905-828-5128 for tickets.

If you can't come, you could make a tax-deductible donation payable to the Independent United Order of Solomon Trust Association, 2420 Coppersmith Court, Mississauga, Ont. L5L 3B5.

I've worked with Lloyd's organization since 1992. I donate to the Order personally and I can assure you every dollar raised goes to charity. Lloyd and his volunteers -- recognized by the Order of Ontario for their good works -- pay all the administrative expenses out of their own pockets.

Years ago, I was conscripted into serving as the evening's permanent master of ceremonies.

My favourite moment will come when I call up Neal Baxter, son of the late Kay Baxter -- Jamaica's dynamic Consul General to Toronto from 1987 to 1992 -- to present the $2,000 scholarship awarded annually in his mother's name, sponsored by Sun Media.

3.99 GRADE AVERAGE

This year's winner, our tenth, is Yuecheng (Jacey) Zhang. Jacey, immigrated to Canada from China five years ago. Today she's a fourth-year computer science student at U of T where she maintains an incredible 3.99 (out of 4) grade-point average. She's modest to a fault and simply a delight.

And when that moment comes Saturday, as I watch the son of a proud Jamaican woman, himself a hard-working and devoted Canadian husband and father, extend a helping hand to a deserving young woman from China, who now calls our country home, I know what I'll be thinking.

I'll be thinking this is the Canada I choose.

PAT CAPPONI = A True Social Activist

She walks the talk unlike many of the social in-activists who have turned their "causes" into a cottage industry........

Real poverty experts learn to speakTheStar.com - comment - Real poverty experts learn to speak

June 22, 2007

Carol Goar

The way to become an expert on poverty in Canada is to get a university degree, run a social agency, join a think-tank or work as a welfare official.

Living in poverty doesn't count. Knowing how it feels to be evicted, stigmatized, dependent on charity or forced to abide by rules devised by middle-class bureaucrats doesn't count either.

"Professional interventions are not as brilliant in life as they seem on paper," said Mike Creek, a cancer survivor who lost his job, his home, his savings – everything but his spunk – to the disease.

"If you are serious about poverty, you'd better have a few poor people at the table."

Creek is one of 14 graduates of a program called Voices from the Street. The 12-week course equips men and women who have experienced poverty and homelessness to speak out, challenge society's stereotypes and become community leaders.

Their "convocation" took place in the Malcomson Theatre at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The audience straggled in and out. The program was a bit ragged. Nobody cared.

Author and anti-poverty activist Pat Capponi, the group's coach, mentor, cheerleader and den mother, proudly introduced the class of 2007.

"We are more than a speakers' bureau," she said. "We have overcome the barriers of shame, passivity and fear. We've learned that recovery is possible – but we can't wait for the system to recover us."

Then she invited the graduates to tell their stories.

A Worthwhile Project Highlights A Change In Values

One comment in the article piqued by interest; "Most of these women we were working with came to Canada from the West Indies in the '50s and '60s as domestic workers," St. George says. "They came from a culture where you fend for yourself, not look for help." and I wonder if this still holds true or are new immigrants corrupted by the cradle to grave mentality that seems to abound in Canada.

Staging seniors' life stories

By NICHOLAS DAVIS, TORONTO SUN

Things were going well for Michael St. George in 2004.

The Toronto-based dub poet had just released his critically acclaimed third CD, Dubbin The Vibes, was receiving extensive media coverage across North America and the Caribbean, and was in the midst of a busy performing schedule.

But during this hectic time something happened that led St. George to re-evaluate his life.

"I was in Montreal with my wife for a music festival when my car was broken into," he recalls. "All my stuff was stolen -- my equipment, my wallet and even my wife's bag. We had to leave the festival and come home to take care of our credit cards and other banking stuff.

"A lot of the things taken could have been replaced. But I even lost a bunch of songs I had recorded for my next album and I lost my brand new guitar. I wasn't in a financial position to re-record the songs or replace my guitar. It felt like I was starting over from zero. It allowed me to really start looking at what do I do from here."

What St. George decided to do was put his music career on hold for a while and look for work.

"I had the opportunity to do some work with the United Way's Multi-Agency Partnership Projects," he says. "I got a job co-ordinating a pilot project geared towards seniors. The seniors lived in the St. Clair W. community and weren't accessing the programs offered by the United Way in their neighbourhoods. Part of the job was to find out why."

St. George, a qualified gerontology activity co-ordinator and remotivation therapist, found that one of the reasons was because of their culture.

"Most of these women we were working with came to Canada from the West Indies in the '50s and '60s as domestic workers," St. George says. "They came from a culture where you fend for yourself, not look for help."

A Voice In The Wilderness

And Peter Williams is to be commended and just think if the other 999 individuals in the church and joined him and driven the miscreats from the church. 'This ain't a hood rally' Friend of dead teens rips outfits worn to funeral

By KEVIN CONNOR, SUN MEDIA

Young men in gangster-style outfits were chastised from the pulpit at the funeral for two young girls killed by a stolen car fleeing police.

"This ain't a hood rally. You're portraying the same attitude that caused that car to kill these angels," family friend Peter Williams yelled at the congregation of more than 1,000 from the front of the Faith Sanctuary Pentecostal Church in North York.

Best friends Aleisha Ashley, 17, and Monique McKnight, 16, were killed early on June 2 when a stolen car driven by a 15-year-old and being followed by police slammed into their taxi.

The young men Williams was speaking about were wearing bandanas and baseball hats.

This Is The Real TORONTO

People doing things for people........

12,000 gearing up to ride for heart
Parkway, Gardiner closed for 20th ride
By KEVIN CONNOR

More than 12,000 cyclists will be out pedalling tomorrow to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.

The riders will be cycling along the traffic-free Gardiner Expressway and up the Don Valley Parkway during the 20th annual Becel Heart and Stroke Ride for Heart, said Rocco Rossi, CEO of the heart and stroke foundation.

"Our goal for 2007 is $2.7 million and we have reached 75% of that goal to date. It looks like this will be a record-breaking ride," Rossi said.

Liver walk can save lives
Tiny organ recipient Kailey Simmons is proof how fundraising efforts have paid off
By KEVIN CONNOR, SUN MEDIA

Little Kailey Simmons is gearing up to take part in her second Stroll for Liver walk to raise money for the Canadian Liver Foundation.

Last September, Kailey, 18 months, received a life-saving liver transplant after spending most of her young life at the Hospital for Sick Children.

"We took part in the walk last year and it turned out to be the weekend before she ended up in the hospital," said Kailey's mom, Lisa Simmons.