Team Reports |
Our Special Pune TeamDave Dryden — Murray & Margaret’s son In 1970 my father, Murray Dryden, the founder of Sleeping Children Around the World [SCAW], gave fifty bedkits to children in Pune, India. This year, the Year of the Millionth Bedkit, provided a perfect opportunity to “complete the circle” and return to Pune with a team made up of Murray’s family: fourteen volunteers ranging in age from 10 to 68, and coming from Victoria, Halifax, Hamilton, Oakville, and Guatemala. Of Murray and Margaret’s three children, Dave (that’s me), and Judy were on the team. Ken had to decline due to recent hip surgery. My wife Sandra and I had two children, Greg and Debbie, who brought along their children, Jeff and Chris, and Theo and Anaka. Debbie’s husband, Sieg, rounded out this part of the roster. Ten years after my mother, Margaret, passed away in 1985, Dad married Theda Burton. Theda’s son, Wes, his wife, Rosemary, and their son, Tyler, were also team members. The fourteenth member was Steve Buist a reporter from the Hamilton Spectator. He became part of the family. Being on the team meant that three generations could better understand and appreciate the passion and the efforts of Murray, Margaret, and Theda. It brought us all closer together. I was especially thrilled with the empathy and commitment shown by the younger generations.
The youngest generation had an amazing influence on the children receiving bedkits. Tiny in stature, they are usually somewhat tentative and reserved and not certain how they should react with the unfamiliar adults from SCAW. On this distribution they saw children their own age on the team and were more willing to act naturally — like enthusiastic children receiving a gift. From my perspective as team leader this was a very successful distribution. The Rotary Club of Pune Cantonment under the leadership of Aloysius Pereira did a wonderful job in putting the bedkits together, selecting the children, and organizing the five distribution sites so that 3,000 children and their families benefited from your bedkits. |
