Greetings from Paul Kells - Founder of Safe Communities Canada
May 6, 2011
Greetings!
I wanted to share a few thoughts with you that I know go to the core of the values and commitment that is present in any of our communities across the country. I could visit any one of them and the dedication and demonstrations of making a difference in people's lives would hold equally as true.
Please feel free to pass this note on to your volunteers, community and business partners as you see fit.
Last week saw the designation of our 61st national Safe Community in Carman, Manitoba. But it was much, much more than a designation event. While there are a couple of other milestone reasons why this was a week to remember, most importantly, I wanted to relate the essence of the words of some of the people who spoke at a regional conference the day following the designation.
In this gathering, the best people you could ever meet spoke of their experiences around safety promotion and what they and we do in very personalized ways ...
Coming as this event did, so quietly, in a modest Mennonite church hall in a small town of 2800 people in the very heart of rural Canada, how fitting it was that we gently passed through our fifteenth anniversary since our founding - and what would have also been my son Sean's 36th birthday last Tuesday.
Together, with the energy, commitment and contribution you have personally made as a part of our past, our present and our future, you were there with us in Carman, Manitoba last week. None of this was ever going to make the national news ... but never think for a moment you haven't been part of changing thousands of people lives, one by one.
My sincere thanks,
Paul
Paul Kells
President, Safe Communities Canada & Passport to Safety
64 Charles St. E., Toronto, ON, Canada M4Y 1T1
Business # 416 964 0008
"Becoming a Safe Community is a statement of optimism and resolution' - Chief Barry King (ret'd)
Greetings!
I wanted to share a few thoughts with you that I know go to the core of the values and commitment that is present in any of our communities across the country. I could visit any one of them and the dedication and demonstrations of making a difference in people's lives would hold equally as true.
Please feel free to pass this note on to your volunteers, community and business partners as you see fit.
Last week saw the designation of our 61st national Safe Community in Carman, Manitoba. But it was much, much more than a designation event. While there are a couple of other milestone reasons why this was a week to remember, most importantly, I wanted to relate the essence of the words of some of the people who spoke at a regional conference the day following the designation.
In this gathering, the best people you could ever meet spoke of their experiences around safety promotion and what they and we do in very personalized ways ...
- The high school principal whose complete student body now know their rights and responsibilities and all receive first aid training
- The EMS manager of paramedics who, on off duty hours, conduct audits of hazards in seniors homes as part of their jobs and love the work
- The RCMP staff sergeant whose people do risk assessments of community hazards to seniors
- The Cargill plant manager whose people mentor other businesses on Health and Safety and are relentless stewards of their colleagues well-being
- The volunteer fire chief whose trucks leave the firehouse with the words "Everybody Comes Home" on the doors above
- The Manitoba Health Region CEO who was the catalyst for her people investigating Safe Communities and who wants every rural community in her region to follow suit
- The First nations Chief in Rainy River Safe community who has been turning around a culture of addiction in the last year and who, with the support of the elders and the community, now drug tests people who work there, including grateful outside suppliers who are seeing their own employees' drug issues being tackled for the first time
- The thoughtful Brandon Safe Communities people whose deep insights provided four key lessons about how to frame safety promotion and the real goals to focus on
- How all of these people who gave a crystal clear answer to a question about the difference having a Safe Community designation makes to them
- And while this was happening, from the day I arrived in Carman to the day I left, 424 people, many of them under 20 years old, completed Passport to Safety in French and English across Canada - and more elsewhere in the world. We will pass a half million completions world-wide within a year.
Coming as this event did, so quietly, in a modest Mennonite church hall in a small town of 2800 people in the very heart of rural Canada, how fitting it was that we gently passed through our fifteenth anniversary since our founding - and what would have also been my son Sean's 36th birthday last Tuesday.
Together, with the energy, commitment and contribution you have personally made as a part of our past, our present and our future, you were there with us in Carman, Manitoba last week. None of this was ever going to make the national news ... but never think for a moment you haven't been part of changing thousands of people lives, one by one.
My sincere thanks,
Paul
Paul Kells
President, Safe Communities Canada & Passport to Safety
64 Charles St. E., Toronto, ON, Canada M4Y 1T1
Business # 416 964 0008
"Becoming a Safe Community is a statement of optimism and resolution' - Chief Barry King (ret'd)
The Story of Sean Kells
In November, 1994, Sean Kells was pouring a highly flammable chemical from one ungrounded drum to another when it ignited and exploded. Sean was not told that what he was doing was potentially dangerous, let alone lethal. Sean was killed on the third day of his part-time job. He was nineteen years old.
His death was not an "accident"; it was entirely preventable.
Since that tragic day, Sean's father, Paul Kells, has made it his goal to help prevent any other family from experiencing the loss and pain that he and his family have experienced as a result of needless death, however it is caused. Safe Communities Canada, the network of 61 designated Safe Communities in Canada has seen thousands of volunteers rally to the cause of preventing tragic injuries of all kinds. It is a testament to the dedication and passion of Paul’s, and those volunteers’, commitment to change, and it is a living legacy for a young life needlessly lost.
His death was not an "accident"; it was entirely preventable.
Since that tragic day, Sean's father, Paul Kells, has made it his goal to help prevent any other family from experiencing the loss and pain that he and his family have experienced as a result of needless death, however it is caused. Safe Communities Canada, the network of 61 designated Safe Communities in Canada has seen thousands of volunteers rally to the cause of preventing tragic injuries of all kinds. It is a testament to the dedication and passion of Paul’s, and those volunteers’, commitment to change, and it is a living legacy for a young life needlessly lost.
