Why do people volunteer? A conversation about community building with Peter Kingston

"If somebody is living in our community and wants to make a difference, they don't have to be chair of the board, they don't have to chair a committee, they just have to be part of an organization that they like and believe in. I think we can all carve out a few hours in a month to make a difference for our community. And that's, to me, that's what makes Kingston such a vibrant community."

Peter Kingston is a lifelong resident of Kingston and has received several awards for his incredible volunteer career and fundraising achievements. Along with heading up major campaigns and raising over 25 million for various projects, Peter has been actively involved in several organizations, including the Kingston Family YMCA, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Boys & Girls Club, and the Rotary Club. One of his most recent and significant achievements was raising over $16 million to support the building of our new hospice, to provide specialized end of life care and support for people and their families. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Community Connections, a Compassionate Communities Kingston podcast. Compassionate Communities Kingston was founded in 2017 to bring the Global Compassionate Communities Movement to Kingston. We are inspiring intergenerational compassion in our communities by providing older adults with knowledge, connection, and support, promoting vitality, purpose, and a sense of well-being. Here is your host, Nancy Corrigan.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Why do people volunteer in their communities? For someone like Peter Kingston, it's all about doing his part to make Kingston the best city in Canada. Peter is a lifelong resident of Kingston and has received several awards for his incredible volunteer career and fundraising achievements. Along with heading up major campaigns and raising over 25 million for various projects, Peter has been actively involved in several organizations, including the Kingston Family YMCA, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Rotary Club. One of his most recent and significant achievements was raising over 16 million to support the building of our new hospice, to provide specialized end-of-life care and support for people and their families. Welcome to the podcast, Peter.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Thank you, Nancy. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I want to start by talking about Kingston. You grew up in Kingston, you're a lifelong resident. Tell me a little bit more about growing up here.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

My dad arrived here in Kingston to go to Queen's University. And after one year, he got called uh to duty, so he went to uh the Navy and went to Halifax, but then ended up coming back to Kingston after World War II. And that's where he actually met my mom in Halifax, and she was a Kingstonian. They came back and they got married. And my grandfather, my dad's dad, moved in with us when we were young kids, and so we had that positive experience to have a grandparent living with us. And it just was a great city to grow up in. I went through uh high school at Reggie. I was fortunate enough to get into the Queen's School of Business. And again, had lots of different opportunities at the end of university.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Now I understand you you started out in retail and then you moved into financial investing, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I worked for Brown's at that time. It was called Brown's Automatic Vending 1975 Limited. And as that business transitioned into a more uh cafeteer style business, I had an opportunity to join my brother in the investment business at uh CIBC Whit Gundy. And I thought I I thought I'd have enough relationships and and I thought it was an interesting career, so I took that risk, and uh it worked out very well. I built uh a good book of business and met a lot of more people as a result of that, and I think that helped me as well get more deeply involved in the community.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

You've often said that Kingston is the best city in Canada. Why do you say that?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Well, again, I've traveled across the country. I've been to you know, Halifax, St. John's, uh, Victoria, Vancouver, many cities, big and small, and I just think our downtown in particular is vibrant. I think the DBIA do a great job. They keep it clean, there's all kinds of activities going on, and we're blessed because the university is incorporated within our city, particularly within the downtown area. That really generates a lot of activity, generates a lot of business. And so we don't have a hollowed-out downtown like a lot of small towns do. I'm just super proud. I brought some friends in from Niagara on the Lake, which in itself is a nice community, but we took them downtown and walked around. They went, wow, we're really, really impressed with your downtown. They had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, it seems like every weekend there's something going on these days, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Well, you have to have a calendar. It's uh, you know, if it's not the buskers, it's gonna be something to do with the tragedy up this summer or movies in the city behind City Hall. I think an outstanding thing that they did a few years ago was build a r have a ability to build a rink behind City Hall. Like if I'm away and my grandson's at the rink, I can zoom in on a web camera and see them. And that's again, I show that to my friends and they're they're pretty shocked and surprised that that that's available in an historic town.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I like the fact that the events are really diverse. So, you know, you've got salsa dancing, you've got movies, you know, you have indigenous celebrations, and I think it there's something for everyone of every age. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

We've got the cruise lines that are based out of downtown Kingston. Uh, you know, you're not that far away from going to Fort Henry, a nice walk around RMC, and and you know, the yacht club and all of it, you know, this is the best inland water sailing, they say, in the world. So I see a ton of activity down at Portsmouth Athletic Harbor, and when you're on your way to there, you're seeing a lineup for the Kingston Penn. So there's lots to do in our city, especially in the summertime.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

The other part about having a great city, I think, is connections. And you talked earlier about making connections as part of your business. Having been involved in so many organizations here in Kingston, you have made so many connections on the volunteer front. Can you tell me a little bit about the value of volunteering for these organizations and what's that meant for you personally and what that means for our community?

SPEAKER_00 5:33

I don't have a lot of commute time in the city, so I I have this extra time that I thought I could spend as well as raising my kids, but I just thought there's enough things to do, and uh I I have enough, I think, skills and background to offer different organizations. So I've just been blessed to be part of some significant organizations, and that oftentimes that key times when they're looking to expand, like the family YMCA when we added a pool and the Boys and Girls Club, when we decide to take on Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and also sign a lease for a 55,000 square foot facility at Fronnack Mall. I mean, that was there's some risk to be taken there, but it's turned out really well. And you know, I think that's important that we provide those activities for our children and youth. And St. Lawrence College was another one that I think was and is important to our community. And being on the foundation, they needed to raise some money and uh to to join the two buildings together to make it a complete campus, and I was pleased and proud to be able to participate in that. And then most recently is the hospice. My mom passed away f uh over 20 years ago, and she spent her last couple of days at St. Mary's Lake Hospital in a palliative care bed, better than a hospital for somebody at the end of their life, but not a hospice. And when I found out more about what a hospice is about, I said that makes sense. We're the biggest city. I thought it would also offer some relief for KGH. That's not where you want to spend your last few days. They're there to get you better, not there to help you die well. And that's the phrase I've coined for myself. A hospice allows the person in the family to experience a positive end of life. That one just you know rang with me s because of my mom at the her end of life and how much different it might have been for her. She really did not want to go to hospital. And there was a bed at St. Mary's in the palliative care section, and say better than an active hospital, but still you gotta park the car, find the door, find the elevator, find the floor, find the room. And that was stressful for for us. A simple thing, but I think it makes a big difference is the hospice now. If you pull up to the parking lot, get out of the car, go into the front entrance, by the time you leave your car and get to the room of your friend or loved one, it's under a minute. So it's just like going to somebody's home. It's designed to be like that. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And anybody that I know who's experienced a friend or loved one who's passed away there just can't say enough good things about it. The halls and rooms are full of local donated art. It really does look and feel like your home to a great extent. Although it still does have to operate as a medical facility, but doors are wide enough the beds can be pushed out into the uh onto the patio. Sometimes people just want to be outside to enjoy the warmth. Sometimes they think my time's near. So I'd like to be outside.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

But it was a long journey, right, to building this hospice from when you started the fundraising campaign.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

It was. We originally were going to locate it out off of Sydenham Road, and for a variety of reasons, that location uh was changed, and we ended up getting an offer from the Sisters of Providence as they opened up Providence Village. They gave us an opportunity to be one of the first tenants uh at the property, so that made sense. It was a good central location. It's sort of lined up with what the sisters have done throughout their uh lives as helping people. And we had a design at one point in time that became almost, I would say became unaffordable, so we stepped back a bit, re-rethought what it should be, and we actually found the design in another community, so it's very similar. And we got the community behind us. I mean, uh fortunately we have people like the the late Britt Smith who believed in it as well. But we have hundreds and hundreds of people who've donated and companies and associations that have donated money to it. To me, that's what a hospice is. It's owned and built by the community, and the community gets the benefit from it.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Now that it's built and open, are you still involved with the hospice?

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I said to Kathy Zable, who's the CEO of Providence Care, I said, I you know, I'm trying to back away from board work, but if there's still people or organizations that you'd like me to approach to uh to raise funds, because the province does not fund 100% of the operating costs. They fund about 50 percent give or take. So there's still a a 1.7, 1.8 million dollar need for funds every year at this point. But the other thing I'm now doing is I'm one of the uh volunteer grass cutters. So I go there at least once a week and put in two, three, four hours depending on the weather and what's necessary. And uh I'm one of those people that like cutting grass and it's I can see the difference when I leave, and it's a chance to interact with uh sometimes the families, because I've oftentimes see people pushing their loved ones around on a wheelchair outside, and that's what we're trying to create is a yard environment similar to what they would experience at their home.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

I love that because you you know you've talked about fundraising millions and millions of dollars, but people can volunteer just by cutting the grass.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Aaron Powell Well, I've got a friend of mine showing up tomorrow. She's a retired teacher, and she's gonna be pulling weeds and tending to the gardens. Do we need more volunteers at the hospice to do that? Absolutely. For me, at this stage of life, I've done a lot of board work and headed up a lot of different not-for-profit organizations. I'm 100% responsible for what I do when I'm cutting grass, and I can I can take all uh credit and all the blame.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Volunteerism is is down across the country. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about the importance of volunteering in your community and how we might get people more engaged in volunteering.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Aaron Powell The organizations that I've been involved in, and particularly like the hospice fundraising and the Boys and Girls Club as an example, they survive on having strong volunteer boards and strong volunteers helping out with the different programs that they run. And if somebody is living in our community and wants to make a difference, and they don't have to be chair of the board, they don't have to chair a committee, they just have to be part of an organization that they like and then believe in, then they can make a difference, absolutely. And I think we all have time. I mean, I know we are busy and we have busy lives, but I think we can all carve out a few hours in a month to make a difference for our community. And that's to me, that's what makes Kingston such a vibrant community, is what we do. I think we do have a strong volunteer base and could we use more volunteers? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

What are you working on now other than cutting the grass?

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Aaron Powell Unfortunately, their city, like most cities, need a food bank, and the food bank in the last 12 to 18 months converted over to a shopping model, and I thought that's something I could participate in and help out. And I'm pretty good in front of people and meeting people and greeting people and helping people. So I volunteer a shift there a week and uh it's been rewarding like I thought it would be. And do they need more volunteers? Absolutely. So if somebody's got three, four hours a day, once a week, they'd be happy to have them come in and be trained and help out.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

That's great. What advice would you give to people who are just starting out and wondering how to volunteer and what what should they think about?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

I enjoyed being on the uh boards and you know, becoming vice president president. I enjoyed that level of involvement, but you don't have to be. There's lots of boards that have subcommittees that uh you don't even have to technically be on the board. You can be part of a committee that's again reports to the board, and that's a good way to get your, you know, sort of dip your toe in the water is to get involved at that point in time. And then there's l ton of opportunities that uh some require, you know, a lot of physical skills, some a lot of mental skills, but there's opportunities out there for anyone that's got the time.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

And you don't really have to be retired, right? As you said, you could do, you know, one shift a week somewhere, so it could be a a Queens student or you know, it doesn't have to be a retiree, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Well, absolutely. I know at the at the food bank when Queens is in session, there there are students volunteering there. A lot of the boys and girls club stuff that I was involved in was, you know, nights and weekends. So that fit in nicely with uh anybody that's working. I'd say the majority of the people on that board right now are gainfully employed. So I think again, there's something for everyone out there, whether you're fully retired and looking for something to do and some way to give back, or if you're working and you have some time and some talent, some expertise, there's a need out there for all of that.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

That's wonderful. Thanks so much for speaking with me today, Peter. It was a real pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Thank you, Nancy. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Thank you for listening to Community Connections, hosted by Nancy Corrigan and produced by Soundwise in Kingston, Ontario. Voiceover by Neil Carey. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please share it and subscribe where possible. For more information, visit compassionate kingston.ca