I think I need to start this entry with a sincere apology that I have not updated my giving all week.  This time of year demands all of my attention at school with the added pressure of grad school—needless to say I am a little behind is all of it right now!  I have been giving though and this is how it went:

June 15 & 16

I have already given by sharing my time with another teacher so that they have more time to complete their year-end tasks, but it seems like such a perfect gift this time of year!  Everyone seems to feel like they are barely treading water these days so I stepped in to help two teachers for a couple of days.  I came prepared with a Father’s Day card craft that I could do with the kids while I was there.  The kids and I made little cards that look like a shirt and tie to give to the dads this weekend.

I am always so impressed with how creative and joyful kids are with a simple craft.  A few of the students crafted tiny football (soccer to North Americans I suppose) jerseys in proper team colours for their dads!  It might have been more fun for me to watch them craft and create and it was for them to actually do it.

June 17

I am very fortunate to have a teaching partner who has become one of my greatest allies at work this year.  We have perfectly complimentary talents and we work together splendidly— so much so that I think we might even get to replay it all together next year.  I wanted to offer her one of my gifts during year-end, and so I offered to do a lot of our joint year-end reporting.  There are a lot of reports to complete,  have signed, and generally keep track of this time of year so today I offered to take care of all of it for the two of us.  She was more than a little excited to be able to check some of these things off of her to-do lists.  It’s hard to believe that our year is drawing to a close so quickly!  We opened a new school this year and this school year may go down in history as the busiest of my career, and I think my colleagues share these sentiments.  I hope that I have made my teaching partner’s year as fantastic as she has made mine and I hope that this little gift helps her feel a little less stressed about our year-end activities.

June 18

Today’s gift is dedicated to some pretty special people in my life.  When I was 9 years old, one of my best friends was diagnosed with leukemia and she battled it for nearly 14 years.  Throughout those years, I witnessed her strength, determination, and will to live through numerous torturous chemotherapy treatments, bone marrow transplants, and other seemingly barbaric medical treatments; she endured it all with a youthful optimism and a smile that could light even the darkest room.  I later watched my father in-law lose his battle with brain cancer and my dear cousin succumb to brain cancer in his early 30’s.  Recently I have witnessed another good friend fight this disease so that he can be here to see his son grow up.

Needless to say, cancer and I are not friends—I hate the word cancer and I hate that it has taken so many wonderful people from my life.

My gift today was in the fight against cancer.  Calgary’s annual Relay for Life even was held this evening and I volunteered 7 hours of my night to help make sure the event ran smoothly.  I was originally scheduled to work 12 hours straight but we had enough volunteers so I was able to go home around 4am.  Relay for Life is one of those events that takes me on a roller-coaster of emotion.  The track is lined with luminaries that have tributes to those that are fighting cancer and those that have lost the battle; a stroll around the track is a sobering reminder that cancer has touched so many lives.

The evening begins with a victory lap where survivors and those currently battling cancer wear their signature yellow and complete a lap of the track. Let me tell you that you only need to catch a glimpse of all those yellow shirts to get the flow of tears going and then you see a yellow shirted toddler and it’s all over.  I am always buoyed by the support of those that gather for this event; huge teams of people fund-raising thousands of dollars to spend a night in the cold walking the track.

Cancer makes me feel so useless.  It makes me feel small and powerless, but this event helps me to feel like I am doing something to eradicate this disease.

June 19

I may have already mentioned that teachers are a little overwhelmed this time of year.  Sorry if it’s getting repetitive—it’s not fun for us either!  Today a group of us met at the school to work on reporting and such, and so I brought coffee and treats for all of us.  It’s not the kind of gift that will change the world or anything like that but it made our morning a little better!  Our report cards are due on Monday morning so I am not sure what I will give all week but I am sure with the extra time I will have on my hands I will be able to come up with something.

Read about Rachel’s previous challenge days:

• Days 13–14
• Days 10, 11, & 12
• Days 8 & 9
• Day 7
• Days 5 & 6
• Day 4
• Days 2 & 3
• Day 1

Read about why Rachel started the 29 Day Challenge.

Related posts:

1. 29 Days of Giving: Days 10–12
2. 29 Days of Giving: Days 5 & 6
3. 29 Days of Giving Challenge: Day One