Winning a battle is good. Winning a war is better.
Preventing a war is best.
One way to do that is for your people to know a potential enemy at the grassroots level and to demonstrate you are not the evil foe the enemies of peace will say you are.
The work of Boomer’s Legacy Foundation, a 100-per-cent Canadian charitable organization since 2006, is vital in this regard.
It empowers Canadian Forces personnel with raised and donated funds, allowing them to provide humanitarian assistance to people where Canadian Forces members are deployed.
There is no better example of this than the knitting and distributing of Boomer Caps, meant to help keep children warm in war-torn regions.
Among other places around the globe, Boomer Caps are distributed in Afghanistan — a particularly poignant destination considering Cpl. Andrew (Boomer) Eykelenboom of Comox was killed there in 2006 while serving his country.
A medic, Boomer was known to give aid and show kindness not just to his own kind, but to Afghani children caught in what must seem like endless warfare.
Selfless acts like Boomer’s didn’t mean anything to the suicide bomber who took his life, but his selflessness and that shown by personnel continuing the mandate of Boomer’s Legacy might be in the long run the only hope to mend the rift between West and East.
Funds for Boomer’s Legacy do not grow on trees, as they say, which is why BC Boomer’s Bike Ride is so important. A two-day fundraiser that just happened during the weekend for the sixth year, it’s a two-day journey of 100 cyclists from the Comox Valley to the legislative buildings in Victoria.
Bravo to the cyclists, who each committed to raising at least $300. Since 2006, over $830,000 has been raised for the Boomer’s Trust Fund.
And, like the Terry Fox Run — another humanitarian venture sparked by the death of a B.C. hero — Boomer’s Rides have since sprung up outside the province.
Boomer would be proud.
editor@comoxvalleyrecord.com