Submitted
What do you love about Ponoka?
Tana Silverland will be asking residents this question on May 29, when her epic 2½-year journey around Canada brings her to town.
As a recent immigrant to Canada from the United Kingdom, Silverland is pedalling her recumbent trike from town to town across the length and breadth of the country, asking people what they love about the place they call home.
She is also hoping to make it possible for orphans around the world to answer the same question, by spreading the word about SOS Children’s Villages, an international charity that provides a secure home and a mother’s love to children who have no one else to care for them.
Having been seriously ill for nearly 10 years, Silverland knows only too well what a difference a loving family makes.
“Many organizations abandon the children in their care once they reach the age of majority, but just like my own parents, SOS Children’s Villages continues to look after its children until they are fully ready to live independently, even if illness or other factors mean that this takes longer than usual.”
“SOS Children’s Villages also provides health care facilities for the whole community if none currently exist, so what better way to celebrate my return to health than to make a cycling journey that could help others enjoy good health too?”, she said.
Since her journey began in Whitehorse, Yukon last June, Silverland has already pedalled more than 4,000 kilometres she aims to arrive at Cape Spear, N.L. in the fall of 2012, after travelling across the whole country in “anything but a straight line.”
If you would like to follow her journey, or let her know what you love about the place you call home, go to http://tanasilverland.wordpress.com
And if you would like to help give orphans in over 130 countries around the world a brighter future and a place that they can call home too, visit the SOS Children’s Villages website (http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca) and click on ‘You Can Help’, or phone 1 800 767 5111.