Heart of Gold

A Teen’s Gift of Sharing and Caring

He is a very small animal with a timid disposition. He wants to be brave and goes about to conquer his fears. Always the loyal friend, he is Piglet from A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books and he’s Meaghan Walker’s favorite fictional character.

Shy and understated, her genial nature refuses to allow her to indulge in the praise she deserves. In fact, her acts of kindness are not very typical of those who are so reticent and reserved. But Meaghan’s courage to reach out to help others has not gone unnoticed. Her friends, high school classmates and teachers have found it to be infectious, rallying behind her to help make a difference in the lives of others.

In just the short time spent over a cup of tea with this amiable 15-year-old, it’s clear to see why Pooh’s best friend gets high marks from Meaghan Walker too. She’s a lot like him.

Four years ago, three tiny four-year-olds changed Meaghan’s life. As it turns out, Meaghan has made an indelible difference in the lives of the three little girls as well.

Meaghan, then a sixth grader, had heard that her school had welcomed triplets to its kindergarten class and one of the little newcomers was visually impaired. She had seen her. Olivia was her name, a diminutive child, always smiling, and quiet recognizable by her petite white cane. “I really wanted to approach her but I didn’t know what to say, or what not to say,” Meaghan confesses. “Like, could I say ‘see you later’? I know now that that’s absolutely fine.”

On the way to school one morning with her younger sister Kathleen, Meaghan noticed the four-year-olds and their mom Denise across a neighborhood city street. A daring mother and her three triplets negotiating Toronto’s crowded sidewalks and street traffic is guaranteed to draw a second look, but when one child finds her way with the help of a tappy white cane it invites stares. Not for Meaghan though. She saw it as an opportunity to help.

“We live a very privileged life,” says Pam Walker appreciatively, a school teacher and mother of three herself, Meaghan being her second. “I work with teens, who are so often characterized as being so self-absorbed. It’s important to my husband and I to raise our kids to share what we have and give of themselves to the community.” In a family rich in charitable spirit, Meaghan’s parents have collected sports equipment and clothes for kids in Africa while her younger sister collects teddy bears for homeless children on that same continent. Her older brother travelled to Kenya as a teenage volunteer on a school construction project.

That morning that Meaghan watched Denise and her girls struggle to navigate through a wave of hurried pedestrians, she put her trepidation aside and seized the moment. In a gesture of compassion, she approached the mom and asked if she could use some help. “I helped with those walks for a couple weeks,” explains Meaghan. “Then my mom got a call from Denise asking if it was alright for me to come over before school and help with the chaotic boots-and-coats time.” Meaghan was 11 at the time.

It wasn’t long before Meaghan became the triplets’ sole babysitter. Just as quickly she became a very significant person in their lives; she became part of the family.

“It was never really a job. I’m more like a sister,” she explains. “It always felt natural for me to help even though I didn’t know anything about visual impairment. I have to admit though,” she smiles, “that first morning I was afraid about messing up… like running Olivia into a doorway by accident.”

A tremendous help to Denise, Meaghan’s good deeds did not go unrewarded. The responsibility and trust that she was afforded were valuable gifts. Her relationship with Olivia gave her tremendous focus in her own life and much more confidence in herself.

Pam first realized the scale, and irony, of her daughter’s role with Denise’s little charges when one morning, while walking her youngest daughter to school, she saw her 11-year-old daughter strolling three little girls – one who is blind – hand in hand across a busy four-lane street to school. “That was my little girl caring for someone else’s babies… I paused to consider how much trust that mother must have in my daughter.”

Meaghan’s mom describes her middle child as a gentle spirit, the personification of kindness and empathy. “Meaghan has the wonderful ability to put herself in someone else’s shoes and understand what others need.” To illustrate her point Pam tells a story about Meaghan as a baby. Her older brother had hurt himself playing ball hockey and nine-month-old Meaghan crawled across their driveway offering him her doll as a source of comfort.

The relationship with Olivia and her sisters Mackenzie and Devon blossomed. Meaghan taught Olivia how to ride a bike. Olivia taught Meaghan not to take anything for granted. Meaghan makes time to play basketball and soccer, and run and swim and swing with the girls at the park. Olivia prompts Meaghan to appreciate life. Meaghan promotes Olivia’s special individual talents. Olivia persuades Meaghan not to let anything hold her back, summed up in her own words: “The only thing I can’t do is see.”

Meaghan has also learned that beyond the joy and smiles of their time together, there is a reality that Olivia, now eight, has already seen. “It’s hard for me to see kids treating Olivia like she’s four just because she can’t see,” she reveals. “I can see how frustrated she gets when people treat her differently than her sisters. I mean come on, this kid does just about anything any other eight-year-old can do. She loves to run, play, sing and dance just like her sisters do,” Meaghan emphasizes with a hint of exasperation. And she becomes quite indignant when describing how some of her teen friends with visual impairments are treated. These friendships are genuine, text-and-email everyday, chat-on the-phone teenage companionship, made through her volunteer work at CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) summer camps. “I’ve witnessed how people react to them when we’re out together… and I’m horrified at some of the things I’ve overheard able-bodied kids say within earshot, the looks they got, the disrespect, the rudeness.”

Not to be deterred, but instead fuelled by her friends’ struggles to do more, Meaghan’s eyes have been opened to creative ways she can make a difference in the lives of others who are blind or visually impaired. Calling on her friends and teachers to help, Meaghan has organized some impressive fundraisers for the CNIB. From lemonade stands when she was 11, to Christmas Bazaars where her and her friends made and sold bracelets and greeting cards, to waffle breakfasts at her high school – all with all proceeds going to the CNIB – this self-described shy girl is not afraid to ask others to support a cause she is passionate about.

Meaghan, of course, is not one to rally her troops to action with passionate front-of-the-class speeches. But her charismatic message to others finds the same upshot. “Look at life through someone else’s eyes and see what you can do to help them,” she asks. “When you see an opportunity take the initiative to reach out no matter how small the gesture,” she coaches. “It’s really rewarding,” she campaigns.

And like her favorite fictional character’s fine friend might say: “I wonder what Piglet is doing,” thought Pooh. “I wish I were there to be doing it, too.”

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