The Winkler and Morden community foundations are celebrating Pay It Forward May with a simple challenge to people: Be A Good Neighbour.
It’s a theme that “everyone can relate to, everyone can participate in,” says Bev Wiebe, community development coordinator with the Winkler Community Foundation. “And it reaches so much farther than your neighbour, as in the neighbour you live beside.
“For kids in school, it’s the neighbour in the desk beside you. At work, it’s the neighbour you’re standing beside on the assembly line or the neighbouring business. There’s just so many different ways to look at it.”
“It’s about building community,” observes Sue Nelson, director with the Morden Area Foundation. “As a foundation, we’re all about improving the community and seeing it thrive for everyone in the community … part of that is feeling like you belong.
“We want people to look around and think about how they could do something for the community, how can I pay it forward and how can I make a difference?”
The foundations have worked together with the Pembina Valley Local Immigration Initiative on developing a checklist of potential acts of kindness and ways to better get to know your neighbours. You can find it online at winklercommunityfoundation.com.
Organizers remind people that paying it forward doesn’t necessarily need to be grand gesture—it can be as simple as leaving a kind note for someone, giving a compliment, or holding the door open for the person behind you.
“There’s so many different ways to be a good neighbor without it costing anything,” Wiebe says.
The Morden Area Foundation will kick off Pay It Forward May this Saturday, May 2, from 1-4 p.m. in Suncatch Park.
“We’re inviting people to come ‘Chalk the Walk,’” Nelson says. “We want people to come down and write chalk messages all over the sidewalks, nice pay it forward messages, inspirational things,” she says. “I’m hoping people will come down and write ‘be a good neighbour’ in other languages as well.”
And keep an eye out throughout both towns in the weeks ahead for Pay It Forward events hosted by various businesses and organizations. Central Station Community Centre, for example, has its free french fry day coming up May 7 (see story below).
If you’re the recipient of an act of kindness over the next few weeks, the foundations urge you to share it on social media (#PIFM) to inspire others.
“We would love to hear about it,” Nelson says. “Tell other people what great things you’ve seen happening.”
