THE POWER OF P.K. INSPIRES YOUNG FANS
Subban’s example leads birthday boy to ask for donations in place of gifts
The Montreal Canadiens’ playoff hopes might be evaporating, but the power of P.K. is still inspiring fans.
Just ask James Thomas Lowden. He turned 11 on Jan. 11 and wanted to invite a whole slew of friends to his birthday party, thrilled that his teammates on his Lakeshore soccer team and friends from Beacon Hill elementary, where he attends Grade 5, would be able to spend the afternoon playing ball hockey at the Terra Nova centre in Dorval. He drew up his guest list. But when his mother saw the list of 28 names, she had a little talk with her son.
Sarah Thomas explained it would be too much for him to receive gifts — or expect to receive them — from so many people. That wouldn’t be right. But James was excited about hosting an afternoon of sports for his friends. So, he made a suggestion. Instead of gifts, why not ask his guests to make a voluntary donation that he would then give to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, just like Canadiens’ defenceman P.K. Subban? After all, James had been a patient at the hospital a few months earlier, when he was treated for a broken thumb, an injury he suffered while playing soccer at school.
That was something his mother could get behind. So the invitations went out, including a note: “In lieu of presents, and in the spirit of P.K. Subban, James would like to make a donation to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, where he received excellent care for his broken thumb.”
His friends — and their parents — got on board. They had a great time at James’s party and, last week, James went down to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation to donate the money he had collected: $365.
“I was proud of James. He was the one who initiated it,” said Sarah Thomas, James’s mother. “He was quite shy when we went to make the donation. But he was excited about the big cheque,” she continued, explaining how the foundation marked his effort by taking a photograph of James with the amount of his donation inscribed on an oversized cheque. The photo — along with those of others — are then put on display.
As for James, he is happy with how it all turned out. “I feel good about it,” he said. When he was at the Children’s, he said, he saw a lot of kids who were there with much bigger problems than a broken thumb. It made an impression.
And then he thought about how he had heard about Subban and his $10-million pledge to the hospital last year, on a day when one of James’s friends was at the hospital. His friend told him about how “cool” it was.
Perhaps we can all sometimes use a reminder that it is not always about the numbers on the scoreboard or how big the amount is on the cheque that counts. Sometimes it is just OK to do something cool.