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Community Healing in Walkerton, Ontario
Ten years ago, Linda Kavelin-Popov, Dr. Dan Popov and John Kavelin had a vision of integrated community development projects, in which entire communities would apply the strategies of The Virtues Project  for healing and developing safe and caring communities. These initiatives would involve individuals, parents, teachers, police, youth workers, clergy, counselors, physicians and other health care givers. This is happening in a number of communities, from Manitoba to Fiji. In May of this year, the Ministerial Association and the Walkerton Foundation asked us to bring in The Virtues Project in the aftermath of an E. coli outbreak which killed seven, struck hundreds with illness, and had devastating impact on the business community of the small rural town of Walkerton in South Eastern Ontario. They were seeking healing methods, which would allow long-held grief to surface and provide hope for rebuilding community life in positive ways. We spent ten days there, speaking to the Chamber of Commerce, companioning individuals representing all sectors of the community, providing an Introduction to The Virtues Project for the community and a five-day Training for those wanting to become facilitators. Jane Hoy who was trained as a Facilitator nearly ten years ago did an excellent job as Coordinator for the entire program.
On the first day of the Facilitator Training, many tears were shed and a woman said, "Until today, I haven't been able to heal my grief -- all this time, I just suffered and couldn't sleep. I felt so guilty for bathing my kids in the water after the first alert. Who was I going to turn to? Everyone else had their problems too." This common pattern of isolation in crisis was broken during the workshop as she and others had a safe place to express their guilt, anger and grief. When she heard her virtues acknowledged by others, she said the mantel of guilt lifted off of her and she realized "I really am a good person, a good Mom." She slept through the night for the first time in a year. She came in the next day radiant, full of new confidence and joy.
We were deeply impressed by the people of Walkerton, particularly their compassion for the individuals directly held accountable, and their sense of shared responsibility for the crisis. There was no finger pointing, no scape-goating, but instead a generosity of spirit, an immediate readiness to serve others in the midst of the crisis. Neighboring communities rushed forward to offer help as well. The Teachable Moment which emerged from Walkerton -- a gift they have passed on to all of us -- is to never take our natural resources for granted, to wake up and become responsible stewards. We must never go back to sleep
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