My name is Melissa C Thibodeau and this is my Blog. I live in Ste-Dorothy, Laval, just outside Montreal, Canada.
I am one of the owners of Buy Canadian First. In my opinion(!), it’s an awesome company that educates consumers on the variety and availability of made-in-Canada goods, while supporting the manufacturers, retailers and artisans of such goods. I really love what I do. I’ve been in the digital marketing space since pre-bubble bursting, circa 1999.
Outside business, I love spending time with my boyfriend, my dad, my friends and my sister when she visits from New Brunswick. I adopted my 8 year old Chocolate Lab Maya from Petfinders.com about 4 years ago. She has been my constant lil’ brown shadow and the comedy relief in my life that I just adore (she’s a klutz). I love reading and educating myself on various subjects and listening to music and podcasts. Love extreme sports like snowboarding and mountain biking but paradoxically I sometimes get more pleasure from long runs and cross country skiing. Depends on my mood I guess.
But what brings me the most joy is giving back. To friends, family and to my community. I have volunteered for local organization for 8 years now. What I am most proud of is having mentored an “at risk” girl for 4 years (kindergarten to 3rd grade) through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Montreal’s in-school mentoring program called The Prometheus Project. Words can’t express how gratifying the experience was, especially because I could see the progress she made. Sadly I had to stop this year and so I am now actively looking for other local non-profit organizations to offer my time and expertise to outside typical business hours (I’ll keep you posted as to how that goes).
I decided to create this Blog following a rather strange vacation I had in Mexico where I suddenly felt a void and felt I wasn’t doing enough to affect change in the world. The purpose of this blog is serve as a platform for me to share my own experiences about doing what I can to live simply and to give back, in hopes of inspiring change in the world. You can read about my specific goals for 2009 here. I will be learning so much this year and I am really excited and looking forward to getting started!
I encourage you to leave comments. Get a dialog going on issues that affect us and our world. I would love to hear from you!
[...] Melissa C Thibodeau – Change the World This Canadian blogger regularly writes on her efforts to change the world – her goals for 2008 do not stop at the environment either, but include campaigning for children’s and women’s issues and running a marathon. Check out her post, ‘The Strangest Green Habit I Have’ to find out a devoted way to make a difference! [...]
I adopted my dog from petfinder too! I rescued my little chihuahua Bailey from a kill shelter in West Virginia! Nice blog.