My Best Friend

/1 Comment/in /by

Submitted by: Blake Balsillie

My best friend is actually my ex-fiancee. Her name is Julie and she is the most giving person I have ever met. Currently she is deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. There she goes on patrols outside the wire as she leads her team to find projects to help the local infrastructure. Her job then is to hire, pay, and supervise the local contractors and provide for their security. She has been there for 7 months now and will hopefully be back soon. Now, I know this is for 1st responders so that was just to let you know what this woman does in her spare time. Her full time job is as a paramedic in Pembroke, Ontario. She does the same things every other paramedic does so I won’t go into that. Julie has taken on the responsibility of ordering and organizing all of the supplies for the service that she works for. This often means going in on her days off in order to keep up with all of the demands. She is also the secretary of her union local and has been a big help in the negotiations that they were going through prior to her deploying. I know this Christmas will find her again asking for other helpers to help in the Santa Claus Parade that she is always involved in. She is the 1st one to help strangers or loved ones, asking nothing in return but a smile. The biggest reason for all this is because last winter we had a trip planned to the tropics but my Mom got sick. We canceled our plans and flew to Calgary. For the next 2 weeks Julie was able to make my Mom feel better about her illness, made the house ready for her return, and ensured that everything was set up for her care once we left. She did all this knowing that our relationship was changing but this is what she does for people she know. Julie, you will never know what that meant to us that don’t know the medical system. Thank you. And thank you that took time to read about my best friend.

Damn the consequences….

/1 Comment/in /by

Submitted by: Ken VanEvery

This is not my Story, rather it is a copy and paste from a members Facebook page. After a brutal and tough extrication here are his raw feelings. I have never been prouder of my small rural fire dept in Northern Ontario.
Ken, Fire Chief

This evening, I watched a young man lose his life. I knelt in the mud of a cold, wet ditch on a long stretch of highway. With his head in my hands, he lay dying. For what seemed like an eternity, I waited for more help to arrive. My arms outstretched through the windshield of his twisted wreck. All I could do was lift his head, look into his eyes, and speak to him. I called his name, told him I was there to help, to hang on, more help is coming. More help came. The young man was removed from the wreckage, still breathing, then swiftly lifted away. His outcome is gravely uncertain.

This man, much younger than I, is a chilling reminder that our lives are all too fragile, and much too short. Too short to live with things undone, events not ventured, words left unsaid. Today is the last day I ever hold back my feelings. Damn the consequences, as bold and intense as they may be, those that mean the most to us could be taken away tomorrow. And the last face they may see is a kind stranger, urging them to hold on.

Academic and Research Interest in United Breaks Guitars

/2 Comments/in /by

Joseph L. Rotman School of Management: Case Study on “United Breaks Guitars”
by David Dunne, adjunct professor of marketing, Rotman School of Management
January 11, 2010

Harvard Business Review: Case study on “United Breaks Guitars“
by John Deighton, Leora Kornfield
Jan 6, 2010

University of North Carolina – School of Journalism and Mass Communications: Master Thesis Submission titled “Fighting the Social Media Wildfire : How Crisis Communications Must Adapt to Prevent from Fanning the Flames”
by Allison R. Soule,
2010