In my previous blog...Sparks
of Recollections, I referred to Robbie
Croft a Grade Eight student I'd had several years ago. He became a
recognized man who “gave back to his community” upon his return to the
Hamilton/Burlington areas. A day or so
following his death, Steve Milton of the Spectator wrote ~
Bob Croft: a
Warrior and a Gentleman
Football gives this city its
national identity, but the most accurate gauge of Hamilton's sporting pulse is
on the hard court. Championship teams
and stars at every available turn ~ amateur, high school, college and
university ~ over multiple generations;
bitter sweaty rivalries remembered for decades; rabid pockets of
lifelong fans weaned on local legends.
And there was no more poignant
symbol of Hamilton basketball than Bob Croft. He was the first Canadian player
to earn a scholarship to a major American basketball college, died Sunday at an
unfair age. Until he entered hospital in
November with a broken hip that led to infection complications, Croft was still
involved in the game, working on the basketball staff at Redeemer University
College after long contributing to the Silver Fox Tournament, helping little
ACTM to school championships and working one-on-one with individual coaches.
“He loved giving back to the
game,” said Jean Bennie, Croft's wife of 25 years. “It brought him a lot of
satisfaction and joy. I didn't know Bob
when he played basketball, but I think you could say that he was a warrior on
the court and a gentleman off it. He had
a will to win! He talked to the boys he
coached about that, but he was gentle and kind and considerate off the court.”
The Gentle Giant, they called
him. Six-foot 10 when 'tall' didn't
begin to describe that kind of height, with hands soft enough to make free
throw after free throw, but to the local basketball community, weathered to
enough to fight off bulkier, dirtier players under the hoop, “He could shoot
the lights out,” recalls George Gresko, now a Hamilton lawyer but in the mid
1960's a guard with Croft at Hill Park, which had the best team in the
city. “If they played a normal game, Bob
dominated...but the other coaches would try to freeze the ball. Sometimes, they would try to beat the heck
out of him under the basket.” In Croft's
last high school year, Hill Park won the provincial title.
Bob was the absolutely
consummate sportsman
who respected decorum and the rules.
who respected decorum and the rules.
(The foregoing are excerpts from the
complete article)
Ways to Give
Back...
“Success just isn't a
Reward...it's a Responsibility.
Businesses can make a
difference by giving back”
(Eric Ripert, Celebrity Chef)
Donate what
you can't use.
Teach an organization to maintain its own website or
handle its book-keeping.
Fund-raise as a team ~ the more specific the cause,
the more likely, people are to participate.
Participate in a fund-raising event...you may gain a
long-time customer.
Create a win-win partnership with specific products
or services.
Use your platform as a business leader to draw
attention to a cause.
Good Reasons to
Give Back
You don't have to
be rich to make a difference.
Whether you donate
money or time,
giving back is
beneficial ~ and not just for the recipients.
(Warren Buffet)
The Around the Bay
Road Race...Sunday, March 30, 2014
Begun in 1894, and the oldest organized road race in North
America, this was the 120th continual-running 30 kilometre road
race. Proceeds support St. Joseph's Healthcare. Over 12,000 runners
participated in this event yesterday.
Drew Edwards of the Hamilton Spectator interviewed 5
runners prior to the race...asking them, “Why are you running Around the
Bay?” Boyd Dunleavey, age 39, stated,
“To Say Thanks.”
In 2011, Boyd was diagnosed with
an aggressive form of leukemia and was given a 10% of survival. On Sunday, he'll run 30 kilometres. The 39-year-old London resident is returning
to Hamilton to participate in the Around the Bay race as his way of saying
'Thank You' to the legions of people who have helped him through his remarkable
three-year-recovery. It includes his
family...the Canadian Cancer Society volunteers who drove him back and forth to
London to the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton for treatment...and the
doctors and health-care professionals who cared for him.
“I want to come back
and run Around the Bay
because the City of Hamilton helped save my
life.
I just wanted to
thank the community.”
Then there's the people at One-Match.ca who
found him the stem-cell donor in 2012 who saved his life and the donor himself,
an American serviceman who was based in Japan at the time. Also, on his mind, the countless people he
met while in treatment...some of whom lost their lives to cancer. “When you're
sick, you make friends who pass away and it weighs on you. But you need to keep
going as a way to honour them.”
It was the fight against cancer
that got him into running. After a couple of his friends ran marathons to raise
funds for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, Dunleavey started to get
involved himself, first with shorter races then as his health improved, with longer races. This winter he joined a London running group
training for Around the Bay.
“Running has been amazing,” he
says. “Runners are positive people ~ it's been great to be around them.” For him, the day will be...One Long
Expression of Gratitude!”
“A lot of people
don't come back to say Thank You...
I think it's
important to do that,” he says.
Research has shown
that the old adage,
It is better to
give than to receive...is true, after all.
Scripted by Merle
Baird-Kerr...March 31, 2014
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