We've all heard someone ask, "what is this world coming to?"  This story should prove to you that there is still a lot of good in a lot of people, some of whom are right in out own backyard.

What started out as a turkey giveaway on the "Cool Giveaways" facebook page turned into the cooking and delivery of 22 Easter hampers and four cooked Easter dinners on Good Friday.

Kimberley Ford spearheaded the effort and got help from two other ladies.  Ford explains how it started, and snowballed.

"Somebody was giving away a turkey on the Cool Giveaway page.  I offered to cook it for the family and it kind of blossomed from there.  We decided that we were going to do eight turkey hampers and it went into 22 turkey hampers with donations from wonderful Airdrie families, some turkey donations, cash donations, grocery donations.  It just got really big after that."

Ford says a lot of Airdronians need some help, and she saw that she could give it.  "So many people in Airdrie kind of went through the same thing we did a couple of years ago with a layoff.  It was just something that I felt in my heart that I wanted to do to give back to the community and try to get that feeling back from when I was a child when we always used to help each other out.  I think we kind of miss that nowadays."

Amanda Siu and Linda Chan reached out to Ford to help put the hampers together.  She says, "On Friday we ended up putting 22 hampers together.  On top of it I cooked four actual Easter meals for families in Airdrie who didn't have the opportunity to do it because of ill loved ones and children and things like that."

To make sure that the hampers would go to people who really needed them, Ford once again enlisted the Cool Giveaways facebook page.  "I ended up putting a post on there to giveaway some turkey hampers to families in need in Airdrie or families that just needed a break for whatever reason.  They couldn't nominate themselves, someone had to nominate them.  Between myself and the two other ladies who graciously helped us put the hampers together we chose the families from the people that were nominated."

Ford cooked the meals for families including one whose father is in hospice care and two others who didn't have proper cooking facilities.  In addition, there were six extra turkeys donated, which Ford gave away on the Airdrie Dads facebook page.

Ford, Siu and Chan got such a tremenous amount of pleasure from helping others that they're planning on doing this again.  "Friday was such an amazing day.  It was the best feeling ever to have people come to my home and pick up these hampers and just hug each other and tell each other our stories.  It was an incredible day, so yes, we are going to continue doing hampers for Easter and Thanksgiving."

Ford's spirit of generosity comes from thinking of others first.  "I always try and put myself in someone else's shoes.  We don't know the whole story of what a family is going through.  They know the story until they decide to reach out to you.  I think that people just have to have a little more patience, understanding and kindness when it comes to other families."

 

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