January’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Liz Takac to support a winter morning warm-up for bus riders on the Gatineau side of the river.

“My project is simple,” explains Liz. “I want to set up a stand at the main bus junction in Aylmer and hand out free coffee, donuts, and breakfast sandwiches. Why? Winter sucks, especially on a Monday morning in February. I want to brighten commuters’ otherwise cold and dark mornings.”

“To be honest,” Liz continues, “December and the start of 2020 have been exceptionally hard for me. December brought some terrifying health scares to my family, and the only thing that kept coming to mind was doing good to keep our minds positive. So we’ve been making a point to do as many random acts of kindness as we can – we just want to create small ripples of positivity during a time when we’re feeling anything but.”

“The main thing I hope to achieve? Smiles. February is cold, and we can all use something to warm us up.”

Liz is a mother of four who works from home for a national health charity. You’ll find her at the Parc-o-bus Rivermead on the morning of February 10.