Thanksgiving: the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favours.

Thanksgiving came to us from England where it was called the Harvest Festival.

Harvest is from the Anglo-Saxon word hærfest, “Autumn”. It then came to refer to the season for reaping and gathering grain and other grown products.

Harvest Festival used to be celebrated at the beginning of the Harvest season on 1 August although nowadays the festival is held at the end of harvest. Farmers celebrated the end of the harvest with a big meal called a harvest supper.

This is where our tradition of Thanksgiving Dinner comes from.

In Britain people bring in food and the food is often distributed among the poor and senior citizens of the local community.

What better act to give thanks for one’s good fortune, benefits and favours than to share food with those members of the community who are not so favoured or fortunate?

Please, as you gather the items and ingredients for your Harvest Supper, remember the Abbotsford Bank – gathering a few items to share with those in need in our community.

If you cannot publish this letter by me due to the election, please remind your readers in whatever manner you choose to remember those who have less or little to be thankful for.

Ask handyDART Users.

I was at an Abbotsford-Mission Transit Committee meeting in support of a presentation being made to the committee about difficulties that had been encountered with handyDART service.

Time will tell how that matter plays itself out, but two items, one I didn’t hear and one I did hear, came to my attention at the meeting.

It was stated that the committee is working on its new five year plan for the transit system – including handy dart

What I didn’t/haven’t heard is that the committee has sought input from those who need and use handyDART service.

There are methods and techniques that have been developed for planning transit. However these are not applicable to handyDART as this service is by its nature much more of an individual transit system, as opposed to mass/public transportation system.

Given the individualized nature of handyDART service it would see both logical and sensible to seek out input on the current state of handyDART service and information about probable demands on handyDART service over that five year period.

I heard no comments from the committee to suggest they are seeking input from those with an personal vested interest in the handyDART system, nor have I heard anything about such input being sought from those I know who use or have clients that use/need handyDART services.

I believe it is necessary for the committee to seek input from those who use handyDART services prior to formulating a new five-year transit plan. Failure to seek such input before formulating the plan would result in a plan having no more validity than if they had used a Ouija board to formulate it.

Hearing feedback from patrons about problems and lack of access with handyDART service was of concern, but what was truly disturbing was the reason given for why patrons and caregivers did not want to step forward and complain – Retaliation.

There is something unconscionable about the thought that some of our most of vulnerable citizens, people who truly need our help to have a good quality of life, are afraid to assert their right to handyDART services out of FEAR.

It is a point that Abbotsford-Mission Transit Committee must explore and address.

Both these matters unheard and heard demonstrate why the Abbotsford-Mission Transit Committee needs to have representatives of users of both public and handyDART services as members on the committee, if they are to understand the needs of patrons in order to maximize the delivery of services.