Toronto is the 4th largest city in North America. Like all big cities, people here are really quite lovely and nice, but they are too afraid to talk to each other. The resultant isolation and loneliness is a sad city phenomenon.

When I moved here from my native South Africa, I was taken with how closed off and unfriendly people seemed. I couldn't make new friends and had trouble integrating with my new society. I thought I was alone until I started speaking with local people and realized that they felt the same way too.

Matthew's lovebots are made from concrete to represent the concrete jungle we live in. We're all a little like Matthew's concrete robots, running on auto pilot as we go about our daily lives. These little lovebots are here to remind us to reach out, love each other and be kind.

This resonates with my greenmoxie drive to get people to do one act of random kindness a day. I always get such a great response to our calls to action. Its because at heart, people want to be kind, lovely and friendly, but sometimes they just need a little nudge or a call to action. And that's what we want to give then, a little reminder that in a city of millions of people, there shouldn't be loneliness or isolation.

IT TAKES A CITY TO RAISE A VILLAGE
That's why we are organizing a spring picnic social. We hope that this will be the first of many social picnics that we will arrange through the summer. The rules are simple; bring a picnic and make sure your picnic blanket touches someone else's.
Between us, Matthew and I can leverage a lot of support. We already have a team of dedicated volunteers who help with our current endeavors and we have the design and media savvy to launch a formidable press campaign.