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ACCW 23rd Triennial Conference Wednesday, June 15, 2001 Keynote Speaker Norm Rebin . [I] grew up in an ac[i\ ist family with an aetivist grandmother on both sides of the family. [and] an acti\ ist mother, [an activ isi sister]. an actn ist wife. an activist daughter. .. But m) SISKCF laid out the facts to me She said. Become a man. You only become a man by becoming a human being. And you only become a human be- ing by understanding that contributiont \olunteerism. servwe. collective responsiA bility soeial _|Ll.\llt.‘6 is just us. and that means. in fact. it has nothing to do with size or shape or gender or weight or configura- tion. It has to do with your heart and your soul and the passion and all the stuff that beats in you normally. So you go out there and you make a difference Because the truth ofthe matter is one ofthe great myths is it's gomg to get better. but it'll never get better unless you make it better.‘ “My maternal grandmother was Mary... She came from Russia as a young lady and she came to Buchanan. Saskatch- ewan. And she settled there. .. Mary was the kind of woman that would volunteer her efforts everywhere it was needed. Sometimes when the flies would settle thickly on the backsofGod'screatures.our cattle. she would go out there and sweep oft the flies and the mosquitoes when the smudge pots didn‘t stop the lowrng of the cattle. She would croon to them and sing iii to them. But Mary would sing to these ereatures. And Mary would walk around and she would caress and touch the flow- ers. During the great t'lu epidemic in those days in Saskatchewan we didn‘t have hos- pitals. We didn't have visiting doctors. We And as the flu swept over the province it took one after didn‘t have house calls. another member of various families. And in the town ofBut-hanan. families began to shutter their doors from one another be cause they were afraid of this thing called death. against each other and. oee So they‘d shutter their homes sion ally. they'd sicken and die. And Mary would walk front house to house. my Grandma Mary. and volunteer ministerto them, The International Year of the Volunteer, Making Visrons a Reality. Oh. my goodness. my grandmother lived that every day other life. She would walk from place to place and minister. And she would sing to Ithe .\lL'l\] and L‘I'UUH to them. and caress them like she talked to the flow- ers. like she talked to the animals. One day a woman came from a visiting village and she sat on the dirt street in Buchanan. Saskatchewan. Canada, and she was stricken wrih the flu and no one, no one. no one would open their door to her despite the fact that we are all God‘s creaâ€" tures and all fellow Citizens. But no one would open the door to her. And Mary. my grandmother. saw her and she walked over to her and she brought her into the house and she tended to her. My Grandpa Sam often talked about how she would never leave the bedside of this sick woman. her sister. Mary felt her pain. and she mopped her brow and she catered to her most basic needs. And she would try to motivate her and stimulate her. And sometimes when she touched her hand you would getjust a little bit of a smile from Anna. the lady she'd taken in. My mother was a little girl at the time but she remembers a scene of Anna leaving my Grandmother Mary's house a well woman. “firing,” ,y. ‘.