The power of love culminated into an act of hope this week when a business-minded Ottawa group banded together to send musical instruments, sporting goods and cards of support to the youth in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also known as Cross Lake, Man. Now, they are rallying to support those struggling in the remote First Nation of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario.
Both First Nations reserves, like so many remote indigenous communities, lack proper running water, housing and social services. In recent weeks, the youth in both areas have been committing or attempting suicide at an alarming rate. This has led the band leaders to declare a state of emergency in both communities.
Upon hearing this news, Ladies Who Lunch founder Catherine Landry felt compelled to help and launched a project she calls #motherlove. The initiative was well received, and in five weeks there were enough donated items and letters to fill an 18-wheeler. The transport truck rolled out of Ottawa Tuesday morning, heading directly to Cross Lake. The long haul was made possible by Tippet-Richardson Limited movers and 1-800-Got-Junk? who donated $7,000 in transportation fees.
“I started (#motherlove) because I wanted to make a change,” said Landry, who had plenty of support from local business leaders, including Ottawa injury lawyer Brenda Hollingsworth. “I was just tired of seeing talk but no action was being taken, so I put it out there.”
When she asked, Landry learned the youth in the north had five specific requests.
Business group Ladies Who Lunch sent 1,000 “letters of hope” from local children, along with sports items and musical instruments to Cross Lake. Now, they are trying to get the public to send more letters to the youth in Attawapiskat, Ont. (Photo from Brittany Gawley)
“One was prayer, two was musical instruments, three was sports equipment, four was messages of support and hope and five was ‘things to keep us busy,'” said Landry, who called the project #motherlove “because it’s the only thing that can heal a broken kid.
“You don’t need to be a mom to do this, you just have to have a really good heart and you’ve just got to put it out there … the #motherlove tag is really strong. Anybody can be #motherlove.”
The name has a hashtag to ensure the cause has a strong social media presence, to make it easy for people to share information and for those looking for a way to help. Many kids wrote poems on their cards, and some simply said, “I hope you enjoy this kindness card.”
Now Landry is launching a new challenge and encouraging the public to reach out to family and friends to write and send 20 cards to Cross Lake or Attawapiskat, and then take a photo of the cards, hashtag it #motherlove and post it to social media.
“You just need a pen, you need some cards and you just need to Google the mailing addresses. You just need to send messages of hope,” said Landry.
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Mailing address for Cross Lake Nation: Youth in Cross Lake, Cross Lake Band Office, P.O. Box 10, Cross Lake, MAN ROB OJO
Mailing address for Attawapiskat: Youth in Attawapiskat, Payukotayno Administrative Office, 50 Bay Rd, PO Box 189D, Moosonee, ON
