True Encouragement

My daughter, Dawn, was a very special child, but ridiculed continuously by her peers being large boned and molested while still in diapers.Needless to say her self-esteem was extremely low. On the other hand being a gentle soul extremely well liked by all having a special way of encouraging those around her and giving them hope for tomorrow. Being a single working mother we never had much but are love and respect for each other. It was difficult to say the least that we managed as well as we did.
One of her teachers in Grade 2 recognized how special she was through years of child counselling learning to cope past adversities in her young life. This teacher,unknowingly to me,contacted the police officer looking after the nominations to go the Tim Horton's Camp in Tatamagouche,Nova Scotia. He called me to say that he needed to talk to me about Dawn. As i nervously walked into his office he asked me to sit down. I was in tears at this point, thinking the worst as he smiled and told me that this was a good thing. Hesaid that Dawn had been nominated to go to the Tim Horton's Wish Camp explaining it was because of who she was. That she was a good and special kid. With the hardships we had gone through, finally she was reaping an award far beyond either of our expectations! Needless to say, she was going.
Going to the Tim Horton's Wish Camp and understanding why she was chosen, changed her life! She now knew she had something few kids had, respect from someone that understood who she was! She came home from Tatamagouche Wish Camp, beaming and full of confidence. It was an experience that she never forgot !
AvidlyDawn became involved in volunteer work, far beyond most kids her age, making people feel good about who they were. She was in training for a camp counsellor so she could go back to Tatamagouche to volunteer her services to what had been so important to her in the past. I say“was” because she was in an accident that took her life at age 16 yrs. BUT..I have to tell you that just before she was killed she was to be a recipient of the Medal of Excellence. The 1st given out in our City in over 10 yrs.Thanks to her nominee she became with pride a very special young adult in our community with an award in her honour I give out each year to a young volunteer in our community.
From a proud and thankful mom i write this and thank you Tim Horton's.........