Vibrant Communities Calgary

TED Blog

It is hard to pick a favorite TED Talk. How can a person choose among so many challenging, interesting, and exciting glimpses into some very cool topics? Since last month when I was asked to speak at TedX Calgary, I have been absolutely overdosing on amazing videos on the TED.com site. There are a few categories of talks for me, the educational, the statistical, the passionate, and on the rare case, a video is all three. That is certainly the case in Ben Zander’s talk entitled On Music and Passion and that is why it is my current favorite.

In preparing for TedX Calgary on the 18th, the entire team here at Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC) has been working hard on our ‘idea worth sharing’ and the theme of “Volunteering…Even Better”. Volunteering is something we think about often, since without hundreds of volunteers VCC would never have the impact we have, in fact, we could not exist.

Developing this talk has made me reflect on my own volunteer life, which started unwittingly in many ways. I had parents that were, and still are, deeply engaged in their community of St. John’s Newfoundland. I don’t think I ever heard them use the term volunteer, to them spending time for the betterment of their community was a way of life, whether it was coaching local sports, being an active member of the Girl Guides community or organizing the community around a political issue, I was born into it and literally cannot remember what my first volunteer activity was. What is my favorite volunteer activity currently? Check out TedX Calgary and find out!