Young crusader for homeless a hit on Bay St.
A 9-year-old girl from Winnipeg who has raised $350,000 through her Ladybug Foundation to help the homeless got a standing ovation and brought some seasoned business leaders to the brink of tears in a 30-minute speech and video presentation at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel this afternoon.
Hannah Taylor is the youngest guest speaker ever invited by the 130-year-old Empire Club of Canada but her size is the only small thing about her. The blonde, pig-tailed girl spoke with eloquence and humour as 170 people listened to and watched her stories of befriending the homeless across the country, giving them hugs and showing that “they are people just like you and me.”
In video clips, homeless people talked of the amazing girl and how no one, except her, seemed to care about their fate.
With her mother, Colleen, sitting at the head table and her father, Bruce, in the audience, Hannah showed a clip featuring a homeless man named Rick.
“I told him I care about him and I always will,” she said in her speech, adding that she’s not afraid of them.
They’re just people with old clothes who sometimes smell, but they’re people with real feelings, she said.
Business leaders were impressed. "From the mouth of a child often comes the real message,” said William White, president of IBK Capital Corp. “Sometimes we forget what’s important."
"I was really taken with how articulate she is. Probably, I’ll remember this lunch way more than the others I’ve attended," said White, who added that he’s been coming to the Empire Club for 36 years.
Hannah’s story started becoming public when the Winnipeg Free Press featured her on the front page and a television network told her story last year.
Today, the Toronto Star featured her on the front page and media across the country phoned today for interview requests, according to Stephen Hewitt, spokesperson for the Empire Club.
In the past year or so, Hannah and her mother have made about 1,000 Ladybug jars (“Lady bugs are good luck”) that they deliver to people in Winnipeg, asking them to fill them with money for the homeless.
Outside the ballroom, where she spoke today, more jars were there to be filled for Toronto’s homeless.
“Wow!” exclaimed a choked-up Charles Coffey, executive vice-president of government affairs for the RBC Financial Group, after the speech as the crowd sat silent. “Who says bankers don’t cry?”
“As we search for leadership in this country, we see it in the words and the mind of a 9-year-old,” Coffey said to the crowd. “She gets it.”
Before Hannah spoke, Hartley T. Richardson, president and CEO of James Richardson & Sons Ltd. in Winnipeg, touted her as having “a rare combination of emotional and intellectual intelligence.”
Bart Mindszenthy, president of the Empire Club, said he couldn’t resist bringing the girl in to speak when he saw her story a year ago, though he admits it was a risk.
“I didn’t know how it would go over,” Mindszenthy said. “The Empire Club ..... Bay Street ..... Toronto ..... You wonder. But this happened to be delivered by a unique 9-year-old. Would we have gotten the same reaction if there was a 35-year-old? I don’t think so. Would a homeless person have drawn (an audience)? No. It takes a special person to get that kind of message out.”
Although Hannah read from a script, her wit was apparent after her prepared speech.
Earlier, Mindszenthy had received a raspberry from some in the crowd who were offended when he said that the occasion was unique because in the crowd were “people from 90 to 9.”
Hannah used that moment at the end, when she said she would continue to help the homeless “even when I’m 90.”
The crowd broke up.
“I knew you would like that,” she quipped.
from today's Toronto Star
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