Future Leaders Of Manitoba Winner

Rob is The Future Leaders Of Manitoba Winner for the Category 33 to 39 years old.

Here’s a story that Rob wanted to share about his evening at the Future Leaders Of Manitoba Gala: At the awards gala tonight, my wife Michelle and I see this artist painting a very beautiful piece of art. I tell her that I love the painting and that we should try and buy it if we can. I was sure the artist was creating this painting for a silent auction.

Fast Forward an hour or so, I’m honoured to have won the award. The artist comes up to me and presents me the award and the painting as my prize. I’m thrilled! What a gorgeous piece of art! He then proceeds to tell me a story.

He says he used to tell his son the story of ‘’Flight of the hummingbird’’. It’s a fable of a tiny bird who’s home was getting ravaged by forest fires. He braved it all in time of extreme devastation to fly over and above the massive forest fire in order to get to a water source to try and save the forest. When the bird came back with a single drop of water that he had picked up in his tiny beak, he dropped it on the fire. The other animals ridiculed him. Tiny hummingbird said, as it emptied its beak of a single drop of water to put out the forest fire: ‘’I’m doing everything I can.’’

I was reminded of how I felt initially in my fundraising efforts for the Canadian CMV Foundation. It felt like I was putting a drop of water on a forest fire and that I was never going to make a difference.

Fast forward ten years. Today, I feel strong. Babies are being diagnosed, identified, treated and families are having a much better outcome. Governments are listening. Research is happening. Parents are joining my fight.

The painting is now in my living room as a friendly reminder that we start out as hummingbirds.