"Turn to the Sun" for Mother's Day ...

Hi everyone!

There's nothing better than having a positive purpose when it comes to building compassion fatigue resilience and Vancouver's Suzy Coulter has one.

In 2005, Suzy, a community nurse in the Downtown Eastside, volunteered for four months in Kismu, a city in Kenya with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in that country. Conditions in the hospital where she worked were sketchy at best and, on returning home, she decided to raise money to help change those circumstances through establishing the Turn to the Sun project. She decided to raise and sell sunflower seedlings after meeting a Kenyan woman living with AIDS whose income generating activity included growing sunflowers for seeds. Chickens were fed the seeds and the income from selling the chickens and eggs helped support her family.

Every year since, Suzy and her friends have held sales of sunflower plants on Mother's Day weekend and donate the money to the Stephen Lewis Foundation which distributes it to grassroots projects focusing on direct care and programs for HIV/AIDS affected families.

I heard Suzy interviewed on CBC this afternoon and loved her energy, the name of her project and the great work they're doing.  If you'd like to support her and her work, why not attend one of the sales this weekend and buy a plant (or 6) for your Mom? Or even decide to join Suzy's happy band of volunteers?

Sunflower plants and a limited supply of Turn to the Sun T-shirts will be sold at:

Saturday, May 10 (10-3)
East Vancouver - 2133 7th Avenue, Vancouver
(Live music at 11:30)

Saturday, May 10 (9-1)
Chilliwack - Gwynn Vaughan Park
(Corner of Hope River Road and Williams Rd North)

Saturday, May 17 (12-3)
Sunshine Coast - 1163 Cedar Grove Rd, Roberts Creek


If your weekend's full and you just can't get there, at least take a look at the great website at:
www.turntothesun.org

Happy Mother's Day!!