{"id":26526,"date":"2020-05-14T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T22:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26526"},"modified":"2020-05-21T14:50:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T18:50:25","slug":"former-land-girl-93-leads-community-in-drive-for-aurora-food-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/former-land-girl-93-leads-community-in-drive-for-aurora-food-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Former “Land Girl”, 93, leads community in drive for food bank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alma Durkin knows all too well the importance of having quality\nfood in a time of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 93-year-old Aurora resident served as a \u201cLand Girl\u201d\nin the latter days and aftermath of the Second World War, a member of the\nWomen\u2019s Land Army, which harnessed the power of women in agriculture sectors to\nhelp feed service persons and a hungry nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The present crisis of COVID-19 has some echoes of the war\neffort. People are coming together in bad times coming up with new ways of\nstaying connected and lending a hand \u2013 even when landing a hand can only be\ndone at a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Durkin has done just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, she led her community of Ardill Crescent in\na donation drive for the Aurora Food Pantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by stories shared with her by her daughter of\nsmall retirement communities coming together for the cause, she thought her\ncommunity, in which she has lived for 33 years, could step up to the plate and\ndo the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with an iPad, she drafted a flyer for the\nneighbourhood, wrangling young neighbours to deliver the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message was clear: \u201cI feel so blessed to have food\nand shelter during this stressful time and you probably feel the same way,\u201d she\nwrote to her neighbours. \u201cSo many people are not so lucky and are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting the need for hot and cold cereals, canned meat,\nfish, vegetables and stews, condiments, crackers, rice, personal hygiene\nproducts, diapers and baby formula, she encouraged her neighbours to grab a few\nextra things while out shopping or shopping online and leave them out on their\nporches for pickup on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I heard about what Uxbridge was doing, I thought it\nwas a great idea,\u201d Ms. Durkin tells The Auroran. \u201cIf they could do it, maybe\nArdill could do it because it is such a good community. I figured we could all\nprobably afford to contribute without too much suffering!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She downplays her involvement, paying tribute to the\nneighbours that came together to help execute her vision (\u201cI really just had\nthe idea, but I haven\u2019t done that much! I ordered some groceries, friends of\nmine have dropped things off, so that\u2019s it!\u201d) but it\u2019s clear she\u2019s proud of how\nthe community answered her call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just never expected it to be like this and I am just\nabsolutely amazed,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople have reached out to me, people I don\u2019t\neven know, and they have reached out to me in the most friendly, helpful way. I\nthink maybe the pandemic is not all that bad; it is bringing out some nice traits\nin people. People are realizing that we have to depend on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, she says she is reminded of the spirit of\nthe Second World War, particularly as the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of\nVictory in Europe Day was marked on the eve of the Ardill food drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was about twelve, I was evacuated,\u201d she\nremembers. \u201cI was away from my parents and my little brother for over a year,\nliving with strangers who took us in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up near Liverpool, a city that was often a target\nfor bombing due to nearby shipyards, she was evacuated to Wales for about a\nyear before her mother brought them home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were bombed a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were lucky; our\nhouse was never hit. I don\u2019t think anybody today could imagine being in the\ndark for five years. We had blackouts, not a speck of light once it got dark.\nNobody had a light and people were going around to check there wasn\u2019t a chink\nof light coming through. That is how it had to be. There wasn\u2019t a light all\nover Europe, all over England, all over the sea. It was utter darkness. When\nVera Lynn sings, \u2018When the lights go on again all over the world,\u2019 that\u2019s what\nshe means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Durkin and her husband, 95, a D-Day Veteran who\njoined the Royal Navy when he was just 18, came to Canada around 1950 and have\nlived here ever since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople come together in bad times,\u201d she says. \u201cI think\nthey realize that we only have each other to depend on. We need to depend on\neach other and be kind to each other. That\u2019s all that really matters in the\nwhole of life \u2013 and that\u2019s the lesson I\u2019ve learned: you have to be kind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to contribute to the current COVID-19 fight, Alma Durkin encourages you to make a donation to Canada Helps at canadahelps.org, or make a donation directly to the Aurora Food Pantry. (aurorafoodpantry.ca). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alma Durkin knows all too well the importance of having quality food in a time of crisis. The 93-year-old Aurora resident served as a \u201cLand Girl\u201d in the latter days and aftermath of the Second World War, a member of the Women\u2019s Land Army, which harnessed the power of women in agriculture sectors to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020-05-14-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6TQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 21:36:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}