Walk with a red scarf, be awesome like Hannah

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2011 (5348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She’s amazing, but you already knew that.

She’s dined with prime ministers, given speeches to diplomats around the world, written a bestselling book, starred in a National Film Board documentary about her life and helped raise more than $2 million for Canada’s homeless.

Not bad for a Winnipeg kid who just turned 15.

Most of you already know the broad strokes of Hannah Taylor’s life. Her career as Canada’s pigtailed, anti-poverty crusader began when, at the age of five, she asked her mom, Colleen, why there was a man eating out of a Dumpster in a back lane in Winnipeg.

Hannah is the kind of kid who asks questions, the kind of kid who can’t just look away. Somebody really needs to do something to end hunger, she thought back then.

And that’s what she decided to do.

She made national headlines with her signature fundraiser — little jars painted to look like ladybugs, with a slit in the top for donations. At the age of eight, she founded the Ladybug Foundation, which has raised more than $2 million for 50 emergency shelters, food banks and soup kitchens across Canada.

But, like I said, you already knew that. The thing is, this is not the sort of column that just tells you stuff you already know. No, this is the sort of column that reveals new and potentially shocking information.

So today, before we tell you about Hannah’s latest fundraising venture, we are going to reveal a shocking story from her past. It is a love story.

It began about eight years ago when Hannah and her dad, Bruce, dropped by my house to cheer me up after I managed to shatter my arm while chasing my dogs.

When Hannah walked in the door, the first thing she saw was my bleary-eyed, droopy-eared, slobbering basset hound, Cooper. It was love at first sight.

And so, while her dad and I chatted about sports, Hannah spent hours wrestling non-stop on the floor with my basset hound, getting herself thoroughly coated in a dense layer of dog hair and drool.

It’s a moment I will never forget, so, naturally, I felt compelled to remind Hannah about it Thursday afternoon when she and her dad came to the Free Press to pose for a photo with dozens of my co-workers, each of whom had plunked down $20 for an official red Ladybug scarf to help the homeless.

(This Monday is National Red Scarf Day, the highlight of Hannah’s Canada-wide campaign in which the sale of red scarves raises cash for and awareness of the homeless.)

“I love basset hounds,” she giggled at the memory, turning a lovely shade of red. “I love playing with my dogs. We have three dogs and one cat.”

Hannah isn’t exactly your typical teenager. When she walked in our building Thursday, she was greeted like a rock star.

“Oooh, she’s sooo grown-up looking,” was a typical gushing comment. Later, a normally stoic female colleague wandered over, her eyes misty with tears, and cooed: “She’s such a delight! She gives the city hope.”

And she does. Maybe she’s not typical, but Hannah is still a regular teenager. “I ride horses,” she said, beaming. “I play the violin and sing. I worry about homework and all that stuff.”

But the thing she worries about most, as she has since the age of five, is doing something to help people in her community with nowhere to live and nothing to eat. She’s the real deal.

That’s why on Monday Hannah wants all of us, along with buying red scarves, to get out in the cold and take part in the launch of Walk a Mile in Their Shoes events in cities across the country.

In Winnipeg, the walk begins Monday at 12:30 p.m. at the corner of Portage and Main, with walkers, including local celebrities, trekking to Higgins Avenue and Main, then back to the starting point.

“I hope when people walk, they’ll think about what it would be like to walk in poverty, as so many people in our country have to do, and gain a bit of understanding about what that life would be like,” she said.

“On Monday, if you have the time, come down to our walk, or walk wherever you like and wear a red scarf.” Then, after a pause, she added: “I’ve had lots of chances to make a difference. No matter how young you are, you can make a difference in the world.”

And that, I guess, is today’s point. Which is why I’m asking everyone within the sound of my voice to come out Monday and walk with Hannah — and me, too. And buy one of those sexy red scarves.

That way you can make a difference. That way you can be amazing. Just like Hannah!

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca