Small Acts with Big Impact
Adrian has a heart for volunteering. It has always been a big part of his life, instilled in him by his family since he was a child. When he started working as a pilot, he was unable to really dedicate time to volunteering. “I’ve moved every 8 months for the past 7 years,” he explained. “With the amount I move, it wouldn’t be fair to volunteer for that short a time. My ability to volunteer has been reduced, so I’ve been trying to find other ways to give back.” he continued. “I used to volunteer at a [Violence Against] Women’s shelter when I was younger and remembered that one of the things they always needed was hygiene supplies. People were taking them back [from hotels] and were saying they didn’t know what to do with them, so I said ‘let’s organize something as a team so we can bring donations to places like this’.”
Researching online, he looked at the different shelters in Hamilton, focusing on which had high volumes of people requiring services and from that, he chose Mission Services. Adrian then brought the idea to Jamie, the General Manager at Latitude Air Ambulance (LAA). “Adrian put this together wanting to help people in shelters. Our pilots fly around the world. It’s something simple we can do, and all it needed was the logistics of someone to make it happen. Adrian brought it to the table and said we should do this – it’s something we can do that’s simple and I want to do it” enthused Jamie.
With LAA, the pilots fly all around the world assisting those in need, but Adrian wanted them to remember their “own back yard”, the Hamilton community. Thanks to Adrian and his passion for helping others, the LAA team brings back hygiene and toiletry items from hotels, and donates them to Mission Services. Adrian truly believes that big change starts with small, simple acts. “I keep saying, if everyone can just give a little bit we wouldn’t have as tough a time. Look at how simple this is. These are hygiene supplies, they don’t cost us anything or really cost us any time. It’s a tiny thing with huge impact.”
