As the year draws to a close, we wanted to take a look back on stories that inspired us this year. With our year in review, we wanted to highlight those moments of humanity we shared this year. Now as one inspiring collection, here are our top 10 stories from 2017:
Meet a generous 10-year-old boy from Ottawa who embarked on a fundraising drive to support people in the region impacted by flooding in the spring in Helping his community one empty bottle at a time.
- It was an emotional time for many when wildfire evacuees were able to return to their homes in 100 Mile House; take a look at this video that warmed our hearts in Re-entering 100 Mile House.
- A look at how Red Cross helps build resiliency in communities in Southeast Asia to help respond effectively to disasters, including a women-led fire brigade in Myanmar in this story on Community Voices: building more resilient communities in southeast Asia.
- How one firefighting couple went from planning a wedding to working to save their home from the B.C. fires in this remarkable story B.C. firefighting couple saves their home.
- Here's a look back at some of the tremendous work involved in helping countries recover from hurricanes. In Barbuda, aid worker Laura Archer describes medical equipment sent from Canada to help restore health services in the country:
- After wildfires devastated parts of Northern Alberta in 2016, we worked within communities to help rebuild and recover in the weeks, months and even years following such a disaster. This video depicts how we work with indigenous communities to restore traditional trap lines:
- A heartwarming story about a community coming together to rebuild after disaster when, in 1986, flooding completely wiped out a Weenusk First Nation community. Canadian Red Cross has been operating in the community for about two years running programs such as the “Gathering Centre,” which came about through consultations with the community, who wanted to focus on promoting social interaction among the elders; read more about this in The Gathering Place: a place of friendship in Ontario's north.
- When our mobile medical team arrived in Bangladesh to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence in Myanmar, they shared their first-hand experiences, including a night spent in a transit camp, helping people in the dark. Read about their encounters in Saving lives in the dark.
- This is an amazing story about a Calgary man who received Red Cross first aid training in the nick of time as he had to use those skills to save a life – his own. See how a Calgary man uses his new first aid skills on himself.
- An inspiring look at how students and teachers can work together to tackle the issue of bullying in schools – they describe how great things can happen when working together in this story, Students and teachers take action to transform bullying.
