We are super bummed to have to say so long to our incredible volunteer Mary Zhang this month.  Mary was one of Mission: Transition's pioneers, stepping up in January with Tara Shushtarian to start a community action team in Burnaby.

Mary joined Force of Nature's volunteer recruitment phonebank in 2017, opting to take on one of the most challenging roles in the organization - phoning new volunteer prospects and asking them to join our campaigns.  As one of our youngest volunteers, her dedication, enthusiasm and ambition quickly prompted Morag to escalate her to recruitment lead, and not long after, invite her to step up as a team captain for the coalescing Mission: Transition! campaign.  

Mary not only rose to the occasion as team captain, but continued in her role as recruitment captain, while also balancing a challenging course load in her final year of high school, during which time she never missed a team meeting or lost track of a single volunteer.  

Over the last six months, Mary's driven nature, her openness to learning and adapting to changing circumstances, her competence at managing relationships and her unfaltering commitment to speaking her truth have been invaluable in getting Mission: Transition off the ground.  Not to mention her kickass ability to captivate her teammates with and endlessly entertaining series of hilarious stories!  Our team will feel a little quieter and a little more empty without her around, but we wish her the best in her travels this summer, and in the new adventure ahead of her as she begins her studies at McGill University in Montreal this September. 

Thanks for everything, Mary, and most of all, thanks for being you!