On a recent visit to Vancouver Children’s Hospital the guys put aside a few hours to get to know the kids who were sadly on the bench. Faces lit up on all of us as we used BIGLOVEBALL and bright coloured markers to ease the stress of day to day concern.
Grayson McGill underwent open heart surgery in his first week of life and has spent every day since battling against a rare metabolic disorder called Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD). Grayson’s daily survival is dependent upon vigilant monitoring by his parents and a team of doctors.
On 9/11 we rolled our giant love notes and handed out 50 black markers to share our message of condolence to the first responders and residents of New York City. We invited people from every part of the world to express positive messages of love. What transpired would forever stay with us.
I put my daughter in the car, without knowing how or where we would find him. Over the next two years, David and I relearned to be siblings. Without sifting through the past or aggrandizing the future, we were grateful for the moments in our hands. We spent time in my world and we spent time in his.
Tru Wilson inspired us and countless others by courageously taking on her local Catholic school board to be acknowledged as the girl she is, rather than the gender assigned to her on her birth certificate. In 2015, at 12 years of age, she graced the cover of Vancouver Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful people in our city.
8 billion people on this planet are fighting to be heard. The sound is deafening as we struggle to be understood. Buzzing, pushing, pulling, SHOUTING. We all want to be received. Our message is LOVE.
Each morning he receives bags of groceries which are masterfully folded into his legendary soup. David also serves hearty helpings of acknowledgement, respect, and kindness with each cup to familiar faces and newcomers, because David knows firsthand the most important ingredient of any good soup, is LOVE.
A young man named Michael Page was sucker punched leaving him comatose on the floor of a Starbucks in Vancouver. Onlookers stood helplessly watching. Two days later and with zero choice, his parents Steffany and Mike made the call to let him go.
We were friends, in real time and space, therefore I was not alerted with pings from any of my technological criers that he was gone. Among his many talents, Ralph is a world renowned expert on the writings of Dylan Thomas. In between moves like Jagger, he was reciting these words from ‘Fern Hill’…
The great thing about New York is the volume of people with their eyes wide open. So much goes down in this city. The food, architecture, art and culture. So when we brought our Big Love Balls to The Big Apple, we were embraced by open minds and open hearts.