Toronto calls in the superheroes to help with vaccinating young children against COVID-19.
With all the attention on the coronavirus pandemic, there’s a silver lining: the Toronto Public Health Department is calling on its superheroes, those people who can turn back time and make things right again, to step up and help.
It’s not easy. Most superheroes are ordinary superheroes. They might fly through the air, shoot lasers, or jump to the correct floor from a high-rise building. At least, that’s what you’d expect.
It’s when you have a superhero in your midst who can bend the rules that you realize how much he or she challenges the status-quo, the standard operating procedures, and, ultimately, how much of life is about being exceptional.
Toronto Public Health’s “Superheroes in Action” campaign has been sending a call to superheroes in Toronto to respond.
Public Health has made it easy to sign up. You can do so online.
The campaign invites volunteers to “Do your part to help protect children from infectious diseases like the novel coronavirus.”
The “Do your part to help protect children” part is important. But the “Children” part is the most important part.
The hero of the month is a woman with a heart of gold.
Heather Thompson-Purdom
“Hi, my name is Heather Thompson-Purdom, and I am a mother, a wife, and a teacher. I’ve been on the autism spectrum since age 7, and in my lifetime I have seen it get worse and worse,” she said.
She’s lived a life of challenges and heartbreak, including being homeless, going through three divorces and losing a son in a tragic car accident. She has found a new kind of acceptance and peace in her new diagnosis.
As a teacher, she says, it has brought her joy and pride: she gets to learn from her students, all ages, not just students with autism.
The “Do your part” part of the campaign asks that you take the time to sign up. You provide information via a dedicated page on the Toronto
