Editorial — Something to feel good about after a tough week

FRIDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — It’s the end of the work week and everybody should head into the weekend feeling good about something. So if you’ve had a tough five days at the office, and are wondering if you’re losing the rat race, think about this….

On Thursday morning, there was a man hanging from the former Bank of Montreal building on Victoria Street from a rope. No, not the window cleaner. Well, there was a window cleaner, too, but we’re talking about the other guy.

That was Mike O’Reilly. He’s the same one who worked at Venture Kamloops and now is in the broadcasting industry. Coincidentally, he’s also poised to announce, next week, his candidacy for City council. At least, that’s the expectation — if he doesn’t there will be a lot of surprised people.

But we digress. Mike has MS. A few months ago, he dreamed up the idea of rappelling down the side of a tall building to raise money for the MS Society of B.C. That’s what he was doing there Thursday morning. For every $35 donated, the chair thing he was strapped into was lowered another foot. The target was 100 donations.

He called it Hanging on for Hope.

The Armchair Mayor talked to him by cellphone as he was hanging there. He said it was uncomfortable. It looked uncomfortable. He spent a long time up there but a lot of people were forking over $35 donations.

It was, possibly, the most creative charity fundraising gimmick this town has seen. That’s something to feel good about.

Here’s something else. Have you driven through the construction zone on Westsyde Road? The first couple of days were a traffic fist-clencher, as described here earlier. But since then, traffic has moved efficiently and calmly, because the contractor, B.C. Dawson Blacktop Ltd., knows what it’s doing.

The $1.6-million project has been organized and scheduled in such a manner that the inconvenience is an absolute minimum. In fact, it moves at a nerve-calming pace — the kind of pace it should move at all the time, instead of the hell-bent-for-leather, speed-limit busting frenzy it usually does.

As you drive home today, enjoy your drive through the construction zone. You’ll get home in good time, and you won’t be fighting with everyone else on the road.

Have a great weekend.