Hi! My name is Teddy Lubimzev and I have the privilege of being the Operations Officer at Chai Lifeline Canada. Seeing all the wonderful things our organization does inspires me on a daily basis to craft different strategies and roadmaps to reach our goal of helping more families. I am quite excited, since this is my first blog post I have ever written.
There is a joke I heard, which I usually start all my speeches with – A child came up to me at a bar mitzvah and told me that he wanted to give me lots of money. I asked him why, to which he replied, “My daddy says you are the poorest speaker!” Although this is a written blog, I will try to keep it simple and entertaining.
I wanted to share with you a conversation I had with the CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays, Paul Beeston, a few years ago.
I was at his office at the Rogers Centre and we had a conversation about some career guidance I needed. At that point in my career, I had worked for a couple of different companies and business-related stakeholders, but I knew I wanted to do something more meaningful.
He asked me a very straight forward question: “What do you want to do in your life?”
My answer was,“I want to work in the community”
His reply was quite life changing answer for me, “You know, what really counts in life and after we leave this earth, is the good you do for other people.”
For the next 10 minutes he provided me with different examples of baseball players who not only left a mark on the baseball diamond, but also on society as a whole.
In different ways, this conversation changed my life. I knew I wanted to dedicate at least part of my career to community affairs and “doing good”.
Having the privilege to be part of the broad and international Chai Lifeline family, I am honoured and privileged to see the different ways our staff, volunteers and donors are helping so many families and making a life-changing contribution to the community.
A few months ago, I accompanied one of our Case Managers to the hospital downtown. Just to see all the smiles on children’s faces when Chai Lifeline comes to visit, the comfort the parents experience when a Case Manager walks in the door, and the relief that there is someone there for their family. This was truly a humbling and eye opening experience as to how many people look to Chai Lifeline for guidance and comfort.
I was in a restaurant a few months ago and bumped into someone I know from a while back. He asked me what I was up to these days. I told him that I work at Chai Lifeline, to which he responded, “Oh, so you are now in the business of doing good!”
His remark summarizes it all. At Chai Lifeline, we are in the business of “doing good” and fighting illness with love.
I would like to thank all of our staff, volunteers, donors, and community partners for the opportunity to continue to change the world.
Cheers,
Teddy
