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YMCA Peace Medallion winners embody empathy by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff 11 | Friday, November 20, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Choose empathy. That was the message echoed by many at the YMCA of Oakville Peace Breakfast at the Oakville Convention Centre Thursday (Nov. 19). At the YMCA, it's believed empathy connects us to one another and makes our communities and world better places in which to live, YMCA of Oakville Board of Directors Chair Alexe Somers told a sold-out crowd. She said empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. "You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they're feeling," she said, noting today people are often apathetic. "As we rush to work in the morning, it's so easy to ignore that homeless person on the sidewalk shivering in the cold," she said. "We can quickly tune out the devastation caused by a hurricane or earthquake because we are so busy thinking about everything we have to complete on our `To Do' list." YMCA Peace Week and the community Breakfast for Peace is just one way people can help raise awareness about the importance of choosing empathy, Somers explained. "As a YMCA and a charity, we also try do this in our work every day. Our programs are inclusive of all and designed to help our The Oakville YMCA Community Breakfast for Peace awarded the 2015 YMCA Peace Medallion to a youth, adult and group that have made a difference in Oakville. Pictured from left, youth category nominees Alvin Leung and Jack Mogus, Youth Medallion winner Aiza Abid and nominee David Vidican. | photo by Riziero Vertolli ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) children and youths understand what they have in common with each other, so that they can develop empathy," she said. The YMCA of Oakville Peace Breakfast is part of YMCA Peace Week, Nov. 14-21, which encourages people to pause and take a moment out of their day to recognize the importance of peace in the community. A highlight of the breakfast and Peace Week activities is the presentation of YMCA Peace Medallions to individuals or groups who, without any special resources, demonstrate a commitment to peace through individual contributions made within their local, national or global community. These individuals and groups embody empathy. Aiza Abid, a Garth Webb Secondary School student, was the winner of a YMCA Peace Medallion in the youth category. Driven by passion to make a difference, Abid started Aiza's Teddy Bear Foundation in 2013 to send stuffed toys to local homeless shelters and children's hospitals. In accepting the recognition, which comes with a $500 bursary to be used towards charitable work, Abid told attendees of the peace breakfast how thankful she was to be recognized for the work she loves to do. "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to represent 5.5 million children who are out of school in Pakistan, the 200,000 people experiencing homelessness in Canada and the millions of sick kids around the world," said Abid, who also ran the Me to We Social Justice Club at her school and has recently taken her initiatives global by organizing a school supply drive for a school in South Asia. The 17-year-old said she founded the foundation with the belief everyone deserves to be happy, whether it came in the form of a teddy bear, a blanket or backpack with school supplies. "With every student, ill child or homeless person we met, came a story and these stories quickly became the driving force behind the work we do," she said. "The same people we were helping were, in turn, helping us. They were inspiring us with their bravery, their selflessness and their positivity." see Peace on p.15