Two weeks ago, we had the privilege of supporting the 11th annual Hamilton Climb for Cancer. We joined thousands of people from our community to step in front of cancer and raise over $100,000 for the Juravinski Cancer Centre. These thousands of people coming together each year creates a movement; it builds momentum in our community. This momentum helps us to achieve greater goals that would otherwise seem too large for one person alone.
Think of it this way…
You have this massive boulder sitting out front of your house. It’s been sitting there for years. Today you wake up and decide you want to move it. You put on some comfy clothes and go full tilt at this boulder, pushing, pulling, grunting and occasionally swearing. Finally, you notice that this boulder isn’t budging. Deciding it’s too big to move, you deal with the view of this boulder out front of your house. Every day, you just walk around it.
Three months later, you notice that the boulder out front of your neighbour’s house has moved a few feet and that they’ve been out pushing that boulder every day, little bits at a time. So, you decide you’re going to take another shot at it. You apply effort to move that boulder a little at a time as well. You wave to your neighbour and he walks over and gives a hand as you both share the effort to help move each other’s boulders and commit to one another to meet up every morning and help one another.
Three months later your boulders are actually moving while you sleep and you both continue to wake up and meet to make sure the boulders are not drifting off course and continue to move forward in the direction you want to go. Along the way, you’re able to lend a hand to other neighbours who are trying to move their boulders and you find that having 3 or 4 neighbours all pushing the boulder moves much quicker. Now you see the same neighbours out every morning working hard and helping each other keep their Momentum going.
This is how we build Momentum.
Our target is to move our city together and roll our boulders in the right direction together. The Climb for Cancer is a great example of people coming together for that exact reason. It was inspiring to hear people’s stories at the Climb and to hear what they’re doing to move their boulders and see results from their efforts. Step by step, we will move our boulders and make Hamilton the healthiest city in Canada.
