What can one person do? Let Christopher Randall show you

详细摘要

For Randall, those small gestures take on even greater significance as more people struggle to make ends meet. From working families feeling the pressure of rising costs to…

Some see a need and wonder what they can do to help. And then there’s Christopher Randall, living proof that one person really can make a difference, even in a city as big as Toronto.

At just 18 years old, he started volunteering at Scott Mission, which has provided food, shelter and support to people in need since 1941.

His desire to help was shaped by his mother, Audrey Halnan, whose generosity he witnessed throughout his life, as well as his deep love and admiration for Jesus Christ and his commitment to helping the poor and disenfranchised.

As a young volunteer, Randall borrowed his father’s car and delivered Christmas food hampers to families across the city, an experience that opened his eyes to a reality far removed from his own.

“I grew up in The Kingsway. We had a pretty nice house and a nice cottage in Muskoka. In my own naive way, I thought most people lived like that. I thought people had the same reality that I had, and they don’t,” he recalled. “I saw people who lived very differently from myself.”

Soon, Randall looked for other ways to help. In 1983, he founded Helping Others Incorporated, a product donation program that brought together corporate donors and charities, including Scott Mission, to get goods into the hands of people in need, particularly at Christmastime.

Rather than raise money, he persuaded companies and suppliers to donate everything from food, clothing and soft drinks to toys, teddy bears and even concert tickets. Over the next decade, he estimates Helping Others Incorporated brought in roughly $5-million worth of donated goods.

But Randall wasn’t done yet. As his career in radio progressed, he saw another opportunity to make an impact.

He approached his boss at ZoomerMedia, Moses Znaimer, about getting involved. That conversation led to the creation of the New Classical FM/Zoomer Radio Holiday Hope Fund, an annual charitable initiative that’s now in its 18th year.

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