The City of Toledo Board of Community Relations is sponsoring a photo contest to showcase compassion. The contest is a collaborative effort with the Compassionate Community Initiative with a goal of promoting Toledo as a “compassionate community.”
“We wanted to highlight the positive, compassionate acts that are being done within the city of Toledo,” said Director of Community Relations Linda Alvarado.
This contest is open to any resident of Toledo; people who work or go to school in Toledo can participate as well. Participants can submit one photo taken in Toledo that shows compassion. Any photo of a child under the age of 18 must be from the parent or legal guardian of the child, or must obtain their permission with a signature.
According to the news release, this contest focuses on the “collective greatness of our city through positive and peaceful happenings that occur on a daily basis.”
The contest was made possible by a TED Prize awarded to Karen Armstrong, who argued that compassion was the center of all religious and ethical philosophies. Her wish was to create, launch and propagate a Charter for Compassion which was later launched on Nov. 12, 2009. The Charter for Compassion partnered with Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio.
One year later, Seattle became the world’s first “Compassionate City” as part of an international campaign with the goal of designating other cities as well. Currently, 23 cities have been designated worldwide, the closest to Toledo being Cincinnati.
In 2011, Toledo became an official candidate to become a “Compassionate Community,” the first of its kind, which would consist of Greater Toledo and Northwest Ohio. The Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio has partnered with the Charter for Compassion in the local campaign.
“It’s essentially a rebranding with a very positive story,” Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio Co-Chair Judy Trautman said. “I really believe that Toledo has an under told story of good things and in the process of working on this campaign, I’ve met such incredible people and organizations doing on-the-ground compassionate work to better the city.”
Many of those are small non-profit organizations or single persons that had an idea, Trautman said. Trautman said this initiative is to balance the good and the bad aspects of the city.
“We’re not turning a blind eye on the city’s warts,” Traitman said. “We just believe that, if we gather all these people together, instead of their operating singly and isolated, that if we operated together, we could do more,” Trautman said.
Anyone may enter by emailing a photo and a completed entry form to bcr1@toledo.gov. Entry forms are available at 1 Government Center, Suite 2130 until 5 p.m. on Dec. 20, when all entries are due.
“The whole idea is the highlight the positive so we’d like to spread that as far as we can,” Trautman said.
