You may have recently heard the crippling tragic and heart wrenching story of Hamid Farooq and his family. In short, this poor man lost his mother, his wife and 3 beautiful daughters in a house fire. While I cannot begin to fathom the weight of the grief this man is carrying, I know the generous spirit of Winnipeggers will help lighten his load.
Shortly after news of this tragedy broke, a group of Winnipeg DJs rallied around, put their heads together and came up with Team 204, a trust fund for Hamid Farooq to offset the astronomical costs (tune of $60,000) of sending his family back to Pakistan for proper burial.
Hamid and his family came to Canada in 2007 and it warms my heart to see our city rally around this newcomer in his hour of need.
To help, visit any Assiniboine Credit Union, click here for a list of locations, and make a donation to Team 204. To date, $10,000 has been raised.
Winnipeg, you make me proud.
January 29th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
In Nov 2010 the Tae Kwon Do club Nathaniel and Ashleigh used to attend suffered a tragedy with the loss of some student’s parents as well as physical injuries to the students. Ace should remember them as 103 helped them out as well. They are amazing that way.
I can remember Kevin and I talking about it (blogged about it politically at the time) and I said I want to help them somehow but I don’t know how. Kevin sagely said to me…This is Winnipeg and we take care of our own.
For all the flaws this city has and all the shortcomings folks are quick to point out I have found this one statement he made to me true all the time. We take care of own…even if they just got here. If they call Winnipeg home then they are one of us and we will rally around them when they need.
One thing I love about Winnipeg! Also one thing I love…watching the snow fall from my 6th floor office downtown. I dunno why but I find it beautiful.
January 29th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
Kevin would be right. We’ve seen it time and again.
Two things can be said about Winnipeggers with absolute certainty:
A) we love a good bargain
B) we are immensely generous in the face of tragedy