We don't hear enough about what those who have in this city are doing for those who don't have.
Especially when it involves kids most at risk of growing up to be, well, you know.
Car thieves.
That's why I'm glad I happened to call Jim Carr late Wednesday afternoon.
He's the president and CEO of the Business Council of Manitoba, which represents 65 of the province's most socially enlightened corporate leaders.
It was Free Press City Editor Paul Samyn who tipped me on the story. And Carr who filled me in on the details.
They had to because there was no news release about how, without fanfare Tuesday morning, Premier Gary Doer arrived at the Fort Garry Hotel to lead off a three-hour symposium on the future of our children.
And hence the future of the place where we live and work.
Actually, the specific focus that brought everyone together -- nine CEOs, three provincial cabinet ministers, a smattering of bureaucrats, poverty fighters, educators et al -- was early child development.
Especially for the little kids from the inner city who live in impoverished circumstances. The aim is to find ways for the business community and governments to get involved jointly because, as Carr pointed out, a dollar invested during the early years can pay huge dividends later on.
Both to individuals and society.
The Business Council of Manitoba that Carr leads is already partnered with the province and the Winnipeg Foundation in a career exposure program for kids in grades 5 through 7.
But now the business council wants to start digging around near the roots of education, so they can help children begin blossoming right from the time they're little sprouts.
Charlie Coffey already has planted himself firmly in that garden of little buds and buddies.
Coffey is the esteemed former Royal Bank vice-president who fell in love with Winnipeg during his three years here. When he retired two years ago, RBC and his colleagues gave him a unique gift befitting his passion for people.
It was a gift for the man who has everything and for kids who have almost nothing.
The Coffey Fund, as they called it, is an endowment for early child development. Specifically aboriginal early-child development.
It's was designed to be a national fund, but Coffey chose the Winnipeg Foundation to administer it.
And Tuesday, at the conclusion of the symposium, four aboriginal early-child centres became the first recipients of the Coffey Fund.
The inner-city centres shared the $23,000.
That's the kind of leadership in early-child education that we need from the business community.
And others, for that matter.
It's just in the process of happening here, thanks to the leadership of the Business Council of Manitoba, the province's healthy child initiative and United Way.
But it's already happening in Hamilton and Minneapolis, which is why business representatives from those cities were invited as presenters at the symposium.
Carr said Hamilton business leadership even has a mantra -- or perhaps it's more a vision -- that focuses their energy.
As Carr recalled it, the mantra goes something like this: "Hamilton is the best place in the world to raise kids."
What a beautiful dream ...what a marvellous mission statement.
We in Winnipeg should make it our own.
gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
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