In Honor of Kindness

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity of attending the Member's Statements Session of the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park, as a special guest of Member of Provincial Parliament Granville Anderson. After meeting Mr. Anderson at one of my Jacob's Healing Rooms events, I had extended the invitation for him to join me for my Jacob's Birthday Bonanza party back in December to learn more about my Jacob's Healing Rooms project and my plans to help out Sick Kids Hospital by creating child-friendly spaces to receive outpatient IV treatment. Mr. Anderson was quite impressed with what I have done so far in fundraising and inspiring others to make a difference in this world of ours.

You can watch Mr. Anderson's speech via YouTube here:

These amazing words of recognition for my Jacob's Healing Rooms, along with the kind words later shared by other Members meant so very much to me. It's very encouraging to have my efforts recognised and it motivates me to work even harder towards my goals. However while it is nice to be recognised, I also am aware of just how much more I want to do to make a positive change in this world.


During my visit to Queen's Park, I had an awesome time chatting with another one of my local Members of Provincial Parliament, Jennifer French. We were talking about how Ms. French is actually my local MPP, while Mr. Anderson is in the next riding over. Good ol' political geographical boundaries, gotta love them. But the point is a good one - Jacob's Healing Rooms doesn't have a specific "location".  Children come from all over Central and Southern Ontario to be treated at the IBD Centre at Sick Kids Hospital. The impact that I hope to have with Jacob's Healing Rooms will hopefully make a difference for children from all over this province. Yes, I'm working right now to transform the outpatient IV treatment rooms, but I'm also hoping that this is just the beginning of some wonderful things to come.

Jacob's Healing Rooms might be working to create a better treatment area for sick children and their families, but it's about so much more than that at the same time. I've been thinking a lot about this while I've been struggling to find the right words that fit with my thoughts. Yes, I started Jacob's Healing Rooms because of my experiences at Sick Kids Hospital getting IV treatments for several hours a day for my Crohn's Disease but it all came from recognising a huge need, something that was lacking that could make the treatment experience better in this world. And that's exactly what needs to be done by us all.

Regardless of our geographical political boundaries, regardless of our race, age, gender, religion and personal beliefs, we all have one thing in common; we're all capable of change. Each one of us has the ability to take their personal experiences, find something that would make it better, and create positive change. If we do this, if we each make just one positive change in this world, one act of kindness, our world would become that much better for everyone and the future generations. That's what Jacob's Healing Rooms is about. It's about bringing people together to help inspire them and encourage them to always search for the one thing that could make a difference to others. It's about dreaming big and finding ways to achieve those dreams. Kindness, hope and love are three of the greatest gifts that you can give to others. And the best thing about those gifts? They're free to give.

To Premier Kathleen Wynne, Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins, Speaker of the House, Dave Levak, Lisa Gretzky, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to share some kind words of encouragement with me.

And Mr. Hoskins, when you asked me if I had any advice for you, we should totally talk because man, do I ever have some suggestions on creating healthier communities!


To learn more about Jacob's Healing Rooms project, please follow along on my blog, Facebook Page, Twitter (@KidWithCrohns) and Instagram (@jacobshealingrooms!