HEADLINES | Hidden Envelopes and Waffle Wisdom

Speaker: 00:00:03

These headlines point us back to what really matters. Ordinary

Speaker: 00:00:07

neighbors showing extraordinary care. I'm Johan

Speaker: 00:00:11

Heinrichs, and this is Neighbourly Headlines. Real stories of

Speaker: 00:00:14

kindness, community and faith in action across Canada.

Speaker: 00:00:18

Let's take a look at what's been happening close to home.

Speaker: 00:00:28

Most days, the news scrolls by faster than a Tim Hortons drive

Speaker: 00:00:32

thru at 8am but every so often, a few stories

Speaker: 00:00:35

remind us that goodness is still trending

Speaker: 00:00:39

quietly, faithfully, one act at a time.

Speaker: 00:00:43

Let's get into our first story.

Speaker: 00:00:52

The interest rate on kindness just went up. In

Speaker: 00:00:55

Newmarket, Ontario, financial advisor Julianne Goyet

Speaker: 00:00:58

decided to make generosity her business plan.

Speaker: 00:01:02

Throughout September, she and her daughter tucked envelopes of cash around

Speaker: 00:01:06

town, each one containing a note and a challenge

Speaker: 00:01:09

to share the wealth. They left them in places

Speaker: 00:01:13

like the public library, the laundromat and a local

Speaker: 00:01:17

diner. No fine print, no tax form,

Speaker: 00:01:21

just a simple invitation. Find the envelope. Do

Speaker: 00:01:25

something kind. One envelope at Wimpy's diner came

Speaker: 00:01:28

with $20 and a note encouraging a customer to bless their

Speaker: 00:01:32

server. The result? A bigger tip and a few

Speaker: 00:01:36

tears of joy. Now, some people say money talks,

Speaker: 00:01:40

but in new market it whispers, pass it on.

Speaker: 00:01:44

Julianne says we just need to be kind to everybody and bring our

Speaker: 00:01:48

community together. And I think that's incredible. Not just because

Speaker: 00:01:51

she's being generous, but because she was empowering others to be

Speaker: 00:01:55

generous too. She didn't just give money, she gave people

Speaker: 00:01:59

permission and resources to pass kindness along.

Speaker: 00:02:03

There's at least a three way blessing happening here. The

Speaker: 00:02:06

giver gets joy, the receiver gets to pour compassion on someone

Speaker: 00:02:10

else, and the next person down the line gets hope.

Speaker: 00:02:13

That's the kind of interest rate you won't find on a savings plan.

Speaker: 00:02:17

A few dollars, a scrap of paper and a good idea. And suddenly

Speaker: 00:02:21

a whole community is reminded that generosity doesn't deplete,

Speaker: 00:02:24

it multiplies. Now for our next story,

Speaker: 00:02:29

waffling her way into everybody's heart. Over in

Speaker: 00:02:32

Alberta, Bharti Caluisa just received the province's

Speaker: 00:02:36

Small Community Enhancement Award. A fancy way of saying

Speaker: 00:02:40

you've been loving your neighbors really well for a very long time.

Speaker: 00:02:44

For 35 years, she has been a volunteer

Speaker: 00:02:48

educator, multicultural leader and a friend to seniors in

Speaker: 00:02:51

Drayton Valley. When asked how she earned the award, she

Speaker: 00:02:55

just smiled and said, just an act of kindness.

Speaker: 00:02:59

Now, Barney doesn't just talk about kindness, she's got a recipe

Speaker: 00:03:03

for it. Her metaphor is waffles. She says

Speaker: 00:03:06

if you just add the right amount of baking powder, the whole thing

Speaker: 00:03:10

rises beautifully. Too much and it's a Mess

Speaker: 00:03:14

too little and it falls flat. In other words,

Speaker: 00:03:17

balance your batter and your compassion. But she

Speaker: 00:03:21

doesn't stop at the metaphor. She lives it out. She

Speaker: 00:03:25

started a visiting program called Chit Chat with Bharti, where she

Speaker: 00:03:29

spends time with seniors who don't have many visitors. She

Speaker: 00:03:32

organizes chair yoga, whatever that is, help with

Speaker: 00:03:35

groceries and laundry. And get this, she ends each visit with a

Speaker: 00:03:39

small shoulder or hand massage just to remind people

Speaker: 00:03:43

that someone cares. She even teaches kids and teens

Speaker: 00:03:47

to write Christmas cards for seniors who have no family. She's

Speaker: 00:03:50

basically running a kindness factory. One conversation, one

Speaker: 00:03:54

waffle, and one act of service at a time. And

Speaker: 00:03:58

while she's famous for helping others rise, Bharti is the kind of person

Speaker: 00:04:02

who insists she couldn't do any of it alone. She says,

Speaker: 00:04:05

I needed my husband, I needed my friends, I

Speaker: 00:04:09

needed my community. And that's the beauty of it. Her

Speaker: 00:04:13

story isn't about a single big act. It's about thousands of

Speaker: 00:04:16

small ones stacked up like, you guessed it, waffles.

Speaker: 00:04:21

Sometimes the secret ingredient to community isn't power or policy,

Speaker: 00:04:25

its presence, sprinkled consistency like baking

Speaker: 00:04:29

powder. And maybe Bharti's right. A good act

Speaker: 00:04:32

of kindness, like a good waffle, is best shared

Speaker: 00:04:36

fresh with someone sitting right across the table.

Speaker: 00:04:40

And now it's time for our Neighborhood Watch segment.

Speaker: 00:04:48

Before we move on to our final headline, it's time for our Neighborhood Watch, the

Speaker: 00:04:52

segment where we peek into the more creative side of community

Speaker: 00:04:56

life. When fences make good neighbors and

Speaker: 00:04:59

jackhammers don't. Today's story takes place in Campbell

Speaker: 00:05:03

River, B.C. where one man happened to turn yard work into a

Speaker: 00:05:07

full blown courtroom drama. For six years, a man

Speaker: 00:05:10

named Reno and his neighbors traded insults. Dog poop.

Speaker: 00:05:14

And finally, jackhammers.

Speaker: 00:05:18

Yes, he actually jackhammered his neighbor's retaining wall while dressed in

Speaker: 00:05:21

orange coveralls, laughing Merry Christmas between

Speaker: 00:05:25

each swing. A judge has now ordered him to pay over

Speaker: 00:05:29

$16,000 in damages and issued what might be

Speaker: 00:05:32

Canada's most polite warning. Don't be that guy.

Speaker: 00:05:37

This is one instance where tearing down the walls, as it says in the theme

Speaker: 00:05:40

song of this podcast, isn't quite what we're talking about.

Speaker: 00:05:44

You have to admire the dedication, though. It takes real commitment to hold a grudge

Speaker: 00:05:48

and a power tool at the same time. And this gives a whole

Speaker: 00:05:52

new meaning to needing to mend fences. We share

Speaker: 00:05:56

these stories not just for a laugh, but for a lesson. If your

Speaker: 00:05:59

relationship with your neighbor is so bad that you need hearing protection,

Speaker: 00:06:03

maybe start a conversation instead of concrete removal. And

Speaker: 00:06:07

we all had those quirky neighbors. And I'm sure in many

Speaker: 00:06:11

cases we are that quirky neighbor. Lets move from

Speaker: 00:06:14

quirky neighbors to better neighbors. So what

Speaker: 00:06:18

would you do? Would you call it in? Would you try to talk

Speaker: 00:06:22

it out? Would you let go and pray? Or would you grab your

Speaker: 00:06:26

own jackhammer? And no, don't do that. In fact, this

Speaker: 00:06:30

might be one of those polls where you want to choose that other category and

Speaker: 00:06:33

tell me what you would do. You can do that and weigh in on our

Speaker: 00:06:37

weekly poll at the Care Impact podcast group on Facebook.

Speaker: 00:06:41

Because every neighborhood's got its quirks and sometimes you're the

Speaker: 00:06:45

quirky one. And now on to the last headline of the

Speaker: 00:06:48

day. Knit Happens. How Port

Speaker: 00:06:52

Stanley Painted the Town Red. Meanwhile, in

Speaker: 00:06:56

Port Stanley, Ontario, more than 100 volunteers spent

Speaker: 00:07:00

nearly a year knitting and crocheting

Speaker: 00:07:02

15,555 red

Speaker: 00:07:05

poppies, each one a handmade tribute to Canada's

Speaker: 00:07:09

veterans. Their goal was to paint the village red,

Speaker: 00:07:13

and they did exactly that. And it's a good thing Port

Speaker: 00:07:16

Stanley doesn't host the Running of the Bulls, because with that much red

Speaker: 00:07:20

yarn, they'd be in a lot of big trouble. But from

Speaker: 00:07:24

park benches to the iconic fish shaped welcome sign,

Speaker: 00:07:28

the whole town is draped in remembrance.

Speaker: 00:07:31

Organizer Kathy Holworth said the idea came after seeing

Speaker: 00:07:35

a similar project in Stratford. She thought

Speaker: 00:07:38

someone should do that here, and then realized that

Speaker: 00:07:42

someone could be me. 6,000 volunteer

Speaker: 00:07:46

hours later, Port Stanley's bridge and legion are covered in

Speaker: 00:07:50

poppies, a vivid reminder that gratitude is best

Speaker: 00:07:53

expressed with our hands, not just our words.

Speaker: 00:07:57

And let's hope that they've had enough volunteers to help clean up afterwards.

Speaker: 00:08:01

Now you're hearing this after Remembrance Day, but this community shows

Speaker: 00:08:05

that honour can be beautiful, practical and stitched

Speaker: 00:08:09

together one poppy, one story and one

Speaker: 00:08:13

neighbor at a time. So from New Market's hidden

Speaker: 00:08:17

envelopes to Drayton Valley's waffles and Port

Speaker: 00:08:20

Stanley's sea of yarn, these stories remind us that compassion

Speaker: 00:08:24

is still Canada's quiet superpower. And as for that

Speaker: 00:08:27

Campbell river fiasco, let's just say that kindness

Speaker: 00:08:31

is cheaper than court fees. These

Speaker: 00:08:35

headlines remind us that good news is still all around us if

Speaker: 00:08:39

we take the time to notice. Do you have a story of care

Speaker: 00:08:42

happening in your neighborhood? Share it at NeighbourlyPodcast

Speaker: 00:08:46

CA or join our Care Impact podcast group on Facebook.

Speaker: 00:08:49

Neighbourly is an initiative of Care Impact, a Canadian charity

Speaker: 00:08:53

equipping churches, agencies and communities with tech and training

Speaker: 00:08:57

to care better together. Learn more@careimpact CA.

Speaker: 00:09:01

I'm Johan Heinrichs and this has been neighborly headlines because

Speaker: 00:09:05

every story of care deserves to be seen and shared

Speaker: 00:09:09

Turning. Over tables Tearing

Speaker: 00:09:13

down walls Building up the

Speaker: 00:09:17

bridges between the stones

Speaker: 00:09:21

of this turning over table

Speaker: 00:09:24

Breaking off chains when I see you

Speaker: 00:09:28

in a stranger.