Guest blog: Matt Boudreau
When I first came upon LL it was a match made from the most beautiful of places – Community Building, Representing your Community, Sharing the great things about your Community, Collaborating within that Community to make a positive impact, and Giving Back. These are all values I look to live each and every day, and they continually inspire me to do more for our city.
My name is Matt. I am a husband, father, business leader, local business advocate, fundraiser, volunteer, and lover of most things Calgary or creating a positive impact on aspects I believe need growth within this city. One of my favourite local beer brands, Freehold Brewing Co., has a slogan that speaks true to me #AlbertaByChoice. Calling Calgary home for the past 10 years I truly am proudly Alberta by Choice, Calgary by Choice.
I love local craft beer & spirits, locally roasted coffee, locally grown or raised food, local crafted clothing (LL), and most other things about being Calgarian and Canadian.
Our community is rich with great local brands, businesses, positive community builders, and non-profits that deserve to be highlighted. You can generally find my family and I in the community supporting these amazing brands and shops while being sure they are spotlighted throughout my personal and work life.
Between time spent with my amazing wife and 4-year-old daughter, I enjoy putting in time giving back to the community. One of the best ways I know how to give back to YYC is through time commitments to projects such as running 42.2kms, which is longer than I have ever run or ever thought of running.
I’ve signed up to do the Full Marathon (42.2kms) at the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon to raise funds for Inn from the Cold through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge. Upon signing up 5 weeks ago, my longest run was a mere 10kms. I am not a runner, at least of longer distances, and I don’t intend on becoming a runner after the marathon.
So why did I sign up?
Community, giving back and making Calgary a better place to live for everyone.
It’s not about me, it’s about something more than me. It’s about children in our city living difficult lives entirely outside their control. It’s about giving those children and their families an avenue to not only get necessary housing but to benefit from resources, meals, basic necessities of life that many of us take for granted. It’s about not allowing children to suffer mentally, physically, emotionally from the financial strain their family is under. It’s about the awfully long winter we have had and ensuring no child or family is kept to suffer through cold days and nights without shelter. It’s about being the best community builder I can be by looking after those around who do not have the full means to look after themselves. It’s about raising funds and awareness for Inn from the Cold, I will do the difficult part of running 4X what I have ever done before.
This is not my first time pushing limits to raise funds for a worthy cause. I know what it takes, the motivation of what $2500 could do for those children will ensure I finish this run in a reasonable time for a first timer.
Together, let’s make Calgary and its’ future better through creating opportunities for the youth of today to flourish tomorrow - consider sponsoring me, donating, and sharing the wealth, click here to check it out!
Watch Local Laundry’s Instagram account for some exciting upcoming collaborative initiatives where you can learn a little more about me, my goal, my fundraising efforts, and Inn from the Cold, a great local community builder.
Tune in next week to see what we have on the blog! If you or someone you know would like to be a guest blogger on our blog drop us a line! Chat at chaaa next week Canada - stay local!
