A walk in service and gratitude with Mama Bear Clan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2022 (1535 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This was not the year we thought it would be. At least, not for me. I was naive enough to believe the pandemic would be over by now.

I don’t know what kind of normal I was expecting. I don’t think I dug that far into my imagination, I just wrongly assumed things would be heading back into some sense of normalcy. I didn’t think we’d be headed into another wave with Omicron, a variant that sounds like a monster robot.

Alas, we are here. Although it’s not the place where we expected to be, there have been some bright spots throughout the year and the journey that has led us here. I am not trying to fill your head with toxic positivity or make light of how trying things have been. I am struggling, and life is a dumpster fire a lot of the time. But, as we usher in a new year, I’m looking back at the people and the goodness that have brought me joy during such a trying year.

I walked with the Mama Bear Clan earlier this year. I only volunteered with them a handful of times in the spring. I hope to do so again because I am in awe and humbled to join in the work they do.

I was so nervous the first time I volunteered because I felt like an outsider. You know that feeling, being the lone stranger to walk into a new place with a group of people who all know each other. It was like that first day at a new job or the first day of school. Insecure, heart pounding, sweaty palms, trying to act cool even though I felt so socially awkward — that was me. However, they instantly welcomed me into their group.

Of the few times I walked with them, we made our way through the Point Douglas neighbourhood, handing out bagged lunches and various other items such as feminine hygiene products and other donations of food, trinkets or toys they had been given to distribute.

The group is safe and welcoming, handing out items to excited children and checking in on the folks who poke their heads out their doors as they hear the commotion coming by. There is no judgment or shame in the exchanges, only goodness and care.

I can’t explain how much this group does — my words wouldn’t do it justice. But rain or shine, hot or cold, pandemic or not, this group of incredible people goes out a couple of times a week and takes good care of the community it serves. When the pandemic restrictions are in place, only team leaders venture out. The name Mama Bear is fitting.

One warm day, we came across a memorial for Nathaniel Thorassie, a six-year-old little boy who died after falling into the Red River in 2010. The monument is enclosed in a small fenced-in area near the riverbank. It’s near the spot where Nathaniel’s remains were discovered nearly a year after he fell through the ice on a cold December day. A few of us stopped for a moment, while others carried on nearby. We put down tobacco and smudged this sacred piece of earth. He was remembered and honoured. It was a moving experience that touched me deeply, one that I will never forget as long as I live.

There’s a real sense of love and compassion in the work Mama Bear Clan does. I volunteered to walk with them as a way to be in community. If I’m being honest, the group helped me more than I helped them. I needed them more than they needed me. They gave me hope in seeing what a small but mighty group of volunteers can do to change a community, and they gave me joy by letting me be part of the goodness they spread. They moved my spirit when I saw they help take care of people and their children, including Nathaniel.

The world can be a hard place sometimes. These days it seems we are stuck in an endless loop of pandemic despair, but if there is anything I will take with me from this year, it’s that the world is full of everyday heroes who try to make life better for others.

If you have the chance, I highly recommend reaching out to one of the many community groups in Manitoba such as the Mama Bear Clan to check if you can join them in the new year. It’s life-changing.

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @ShelleyACook