When any of Jeanene Luckhart's six kids let their little troubles get the best of them, she always had a way of helping them see the big picture.
They would dutifully be dispatched to the Lakeshore Rd. E. warehouse of Canadian Food for Children for a little reality therapy.
When you realize that you are packing up food for someone in Honduras or Guatemala or Tanzania who might not have eaten for a few days, it helps put things in perspective.
Last night, the 52-year-old serial volunteer — with her children's schools and Canadian Food For Children and Caring and Sharing and Compass among others — was recognized for her work in a special ceremony held in her honour at the Mississauga YMCA in the city centre. She was the only Mississaugan among 13 recipients of the YMCA peace medallion which recognizes people who contribute to social change through personal effort.
That's Jeanene second from the left in Rob Beintema's photo above.
When she spoke today on her lunch break from her job as a physiotherapist at Credit Valley Hospital, the 22-year resident of Park Royal wasn't really interested in talking about herself.
"I work there with people who've been doing this for 20 years and more," she said of the agency founded by Dr. Andrew Simone, which sends food packages to the needy all over the world.
When her friend Pat Rogan — one of those many long-term volunteers deserving recognition — finally asked Luckhart the question she had been longing to hear after a few years on the job, Rogan didn't even get to complete her query.
Luckhart had been hoping to make one of the trips abroad to actually see the value of the enterprise.
"One day she looked at me and said, 'Would you like to..' and she didn't even get to finish the sentence," laughs Luckhart. "Where are we going?" I asked her.
To lots of places, it turned out. The one that struck the deepest chord with the native of Australia was her trip to Honduras, where one priest was looking after the needs of 200 families. "They rely entirely on the food that we provide," she says.
The peace medallion winner is obviously deserving of more than the regulation 15 minutes of fame, and she's determined to use her moment in the sun to best advantage, proselytizing for the many worthy causes she supports.
She's also a volunteer with Caring and Sharing, a local weekly emergency program that provides food orders for families in need.
When the group gets a call from the Compass food bank or social service agencies or Peel Hospice or the school boards that a family is in need, a charitable pyramid scheme goes into effect.
A designated person in a group of volunteers calls everyone else in the group to ask them to provide a single food item from a list of needs the family provides. The participants drop the food off on the doorstep of one member. "It just happens to be my front porch this week," says Luckhart.
"It works really well," she says of the Park Royal chapter, which has some 70 members now. "It's low cost and low-tech but it gets the job done."
At the end of the conversation, the talk inevitably gets around, through no assistance of the award recipient, to the honour bestowed upon her. "Last night was very nice," she says of the medal presentation. "I was very happy, but I do have mixed feelings about it."
No time to bask in the glory. Too many other good causes need the attention of Jeanene Luckhart and the other good people who offer their help just because it's the right thing to do.
Bless them all.