Vancouver’s Philanthropy Project

A few weeks back, our Upper Intermediate PM class were studying Philanthropy. As one of their assignments, each student was given $10 to go and use as they saw fit – they could donate it to a charity, use it to buy someone something, give it to a homeless person, or similar…. The only condition was that they had to write about what they did and why.

Here are three students’ stories:

Jane

I pondered a lot what to do with the ten dollars given by St.Giles. Then, on my way back home, I found a flower stall which was selling flowers for relatively cheaper price than other shops. Without any hesitation, I decided to buy bunch of roses and give it to others for surprise. My original plan was to give them to the couples that I meet on the street, but I was afraid that I could offend them unintentionally and ruin their date. Therefore, I changed my plan and decided to give them to my host mom whom I really wanted to appreciate for taking care of me.
When she received the flowers, she really looked happy with a delighted smile on her face. Then, She showed it to her family and they all said I’m so sweet.
Actually before giving the flowers and watching their pleasant reactions, I thought using money for myself would be more satisfactory, but it was obviously more than satisfactory to spend money on others and see them being joyful with my small gift. I realized that it is such a worthwhile thing to do something for others.

Yori

Last Saturday I went to Gastown. When I was in front of Steam Clock, a tourist asked me to take a picture of him. I accepted his offer willingly and took a picture. After that, I asked him a favor. I explained my homework to him and asked him to go to a coffee shop with me. At first he was very confused, but he understood what I said and accepted my offer.

We went to a coffee shop together and I bought a coffee for him with the money. Fortunately he was a good English speaker. I chatted with him there. Then I had the attached picture taken. His name was Javier and he was from Spain. He was an engineer and interested in machines, so he went to see Steam Clock. Because he was going to Japan this year for a trip, we promised to meet each other again in Japan. When we went out of the shop, I appreciated his cooperation in making someone happy. He was pleased with the unexpected meeting and said to me “Say thanks to your teacher because I’m happy.”

Laetitia

I gave my ten dollars to my hostmom. She suffers from multiple sclerosis and she is very involved in fund raising events as she is a member of the MS Society of Canada. It’s amazing to donate money to such organizations! I feel very pleased about helping a great cause like MS. I know ten dollars is not enough to make a great difference but it still something and of course every dollar donated count. I reckon this money will really be collected for the charity and not spent on anything else because I trust my hostmom and as she is an ambassador of the MS Society I am sure those ten dollars will help for the research or sick people.