The Food Line at the Parramatta Mission ‘Chirstmas in July’. It was inspiring and full credit to this team and our photo-bombing friend!
Hello Awesome People!
My Friday was a very inspiring, yet very emotional journey of exploring my own past, my own charitable nature and seeing ‘the truth’ that can be somewhat disturbing.
I was very lucky to have one special lady register me for some volunteer work at The Parramatta Mission. They are an elite team of charitable givers who help people ‘on the edge’ in our society from the local area and surrounds.
Being ‘on the edge’ can be defined as many things – all equally tragic. Be it someone who is already on the street, someone who is a few twists of fate from the foot-path, someone whose life is coming apart and even isolated elderly and immigrants in our own community.
They put on this great event titled “Christmas in July” and the mission was calling for volunteers to help. I never quite realized the emotional impact of the event until I was in the food line (pictured). There was a range of great foods all lined up, we got ready, got quite a dramatic pep talk from their leader Keith Hamilton and then the doors was opened and they came in. It was a fine lunch put on for people who really need it.
I was manning the drinks side of things (as there was limits to what was available) and you had lots of people coming through who you can tell are on the edge and haven’t exactly been eating well (if at all).
There must have been at least 150 people who went through and when I was sitting there observing them it got me thinking about how lucky we are. I have had some limited encounters with homelessness personally (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ‘PTSD’ isn’t a lot of fun) and watching these people down on their luck come through actually worried me quite a bit. It was only a few twists of fate and I could have easily been one of them.
From my own personal injuries, I was very ill for some years and even though I had a high flying Corporate Life, all things came crashing down for me very quickly in the GFC. There were some times where I really was on the edge of basically losing my mind and it took a lot of focus and thought at some points to not totally go insane and wind up one of the people visiting a place like Parramatta Mission.
I couldn’t help think of of the dark alternate future and think ‘What if I was one of them?’. It was a disturbing thought but it was also very liberating in the sense that there are people like Parramatta Mission around.
My lessons from this? Wherever you are in business in life there are people always doing worse than you. It gave me a unique perspective seeing many people on ‘the edge’ and in a strange way it motivated me a lot more in my own business and life.
Most of us have our challenges, but we also have it pretty good. I think the key thinking is how do we best play the hands we are dealt. I think many of us are lucky to be where we are. The question is what do we do with it.
Thank you again to the inspiring Parramatta Mission – changing lives one meal at a time. Feel free to check out their website, I bet they could use a donation 🙂
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Love your work, and thank You for the read, enjoy the thoughts, Edward Zia signing out – Stay Awesome!!
Edward Zia is a Marketing Mentor and Business Leader who have worked for a very long time in Marketing and loves helping Awesome Small Business Owners get more clients.
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