The 28th annual Telemiracle is on TV right now. It started at 9 last night and will continue till 5 this afternoon. There is the usual lineup of professional entertainers from across Canada, along with Bob McGrath of Sesame Street fame. And there is a roster of amateur entertainers from across the province of Saskatchewan.

Apparently Saskatchewan is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest charitable giving in the world, per capita. That’s pretty impressive for a province that is considered one of the have-nots in Canada. Compared to the standards of living in much of the world, though, we obviously can afford to give generously.

Telemiracle is put on by the Kinsmen and Kinette clubs of Canada, and the funds are used to respond to requests from the province’s disabled and ill. You just ask them, and they will buy your son his wheelchair, or pay for you and your husband to fly and stay with your child for her kidney transplant in Edmonton. They will pay for a machine to help you measure your kid’s life-maintaining food each day. They will buy a scooter for someone who needs it.

Throughout the show they’ve aired little vignettes of people who have been helped by this funding. The first one I saw was of a lady semi-twisted in bed, with a computer on a stand nearby. She said “I learn something new every day.” She had been born a healthy baby who developed an incurable disease at the age of 13 months. She added that having the computer had changed her life dramatically. You could see she wasn’t exaggerating.

Everett ran for his bag of ‘giving’ money, and counted it up.
“I’ll match whatever you and Emil donate,” Scott told him.
“So will I,” I said.

Everett’s grand total is $20.35. Emil will need help counting his. And I phoned in our pledges, totalling $140.35. Woo hoo! All the little dribs and drabs filling that bucket faster than you’d imagine.