Suanne Miedema (right) and Ailson Williams do a polar bear dip to raise money for World Vision on Jan. 1.Supplied
The organizer: Suanne Miedema
The pitch: Raising $50,000 and climbing
The cause: World Vision
Back in 2004, Suanne Miedema was following news coverage of the tsunami that hit Indonesia when she came across an item about a group of World Vision volunteers who were helping rebuild communities.
“One of the executives from World Vision was just talking about the work that they were doing in that area,” Ms. Miedema recalled from her home in Toronto. “I was just so impressed by how they put their faith in action. And I said, ‘This is an organization that I want to get to know.’ ”
Ms. Miedema, 53, soon became a volunteer and eventually joined the board of World Vision Canada. She now sits on the board of World Vision International as well and is a director of VisionFund, the organization’s microfinance arm. “I give a lot of my time to World Vision and I love what they do,” she said.
A few years ago, she took up another challenge for the charity. She started participating in the Courage Polar Bear Dip, an annual fundraising event that sees more than 1,000 people take the plunge into Lake Ontario on New Year’s Day.
Ms. Miedema will be participating in her fifth dip on Monday at Coronation Park in Oakville, Ont. She hopes to raise $5,000, bringing her five-year total to $50,000. She’ll be joined for the second year by fellow board member Alison Williams.
Proceeds from the dip go toward clean water projects around the world, and this year’s money will fund projects in Zambia and Ethiopia.
Ms. Miedema, who runs a consulting firm that advises charities on their governance, said working with World Vision has been rewarding in a multitude of ways. “I feel like I’ve received more than I have given,” she said. “But the impact that you can see is part of that joy.”
She added that while the world often seems to be full of despair, “there is good happening. And there’s a lot of people who are working towards making a difference.”