Here is the fourth most important thing I learned this year:
Everybody Helps – When I went to Ft. McMurray, Alberta, in October the visible devastation from May’s wildfire amazed me. My host told me that in three days they safely evacuated 90,000 people from the Oil Sands. (There is one road and you either drive north 30 miles to work camps or south 300 miles to the nearest city.) The oil companies placed tanker trucks along the route to provide free gas fill-ups, food and water – and housed displaced families in previously shuttered camps. Three Canadian airlines worked together to fly evacuees to Calgary and Edmonton. “Everyone was calm and focused on a safe departure,” he said. It’s often in the worst of times that folks show their best. Imagine if we did that every day.
