Reason #8 of '101 Reasons Why I Heart Edmonton'
The Good People
by emil tiedemann
REMEMBER Spider-Mable? By day, she was six-year-old Mable Tooke, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2013, and who spent her long stays at the Stollery Children’s Hospital reading Spider-Man comic books.
By night, she was a local superhero saving our city from evil villains. “I want to fight crime with Spider-Man,” she told the Children’s Wish Foundation when they asked her what her one wish would be.
And so, with the help of countless Edmontonians - including Oilers captain Andrew Ference and Mayor Don Iveson - they made it happen for this little girl on September 28, 2015, putting together an elaborate day full of imagination and make believe.
At the request of the Mayor, Spider-Mable and Spider-Man himself scoured the city, cameras capturing her every move as she searched for clues to who kidnapped Mr. Ference. Dressed head to toe in a custom Spider-Mable costume her own mother stitched together for her, Spider-Mable discovered that it was the villain Mysterio who had taken the captain of the Edmonton Oilers.
She captured Mysterio at the Valley Zoo, sprayed him with a can of silly string spider web, and then rescued Ference in the nick of time, thus saving the day! Social media exploded, and not just in Edmonton, as folks like then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Thomas Mulcair, Kevin Smith, Premier Rachel Notley, and thousands of locals cheered Mable on via Twitter and Facebook.
It made headlines around the world, and made Spider-Mable an instant celebrity in her adoring hometown. It was the perfect showcase of the good people who call Edmonton home, the ones who take time out of their busy lives to make a complete stranger feel better.
There are so many examples of this sort of communal benevolence and compassion for others here in Edmonton, like when locals came together to support those affected by the intense wildfires of Fort McMurray and area in May 2016; or like the endless number of groups and organizations dedicated to those who are less fortunate or in distress; and like the countless volunteers that always seem to pull together when someone or something in Edmonton needs them to.
Our city is full of fine folks who have the need to give, whether it’s their time, their resources, or simply their kind words. Without them, we’d have no annual festivals, no Food Bank, no Boyle Street or Mustard Seed, no cancer or MS walks; we’d have no heart and no soul. It’s the good people that make a city great! #yeglove
by emil tiedemann
REMEMBER Spider-Mable? By day, she was six-year-old Mable Tooke, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2013, and who spent her long stays at the Stollery Children’s Hospital reading Spider-Man comic books.
 |
| An illustration of Spider-Mable, by local artist Colin MacIntyre. |
By night, she was a local superhero saving our city from evil villains. “I want to fight crime with Spider-Man,” she told the Children’s Wish Foundation when they asked her what her one wish would be.
And so, with the help of countless Edmontonians - including Oilers captain Andrew Ference and Mayor Don Iveson - they made it happen for this little girl on September 28, 2015, putting together an elaborate day full of imagination and make believe.
At the request of the Mayor, Spider-Mable and Spider-Man himself scoured the city, cameras capturing her every move as she searched for clues to who kidnapped Mr. Ference. Dressed head to toe in a custom Spider-Mable costume her own mother stitched together for her, Spider-Mable discovered that it was the villain Mysterio who had taken the captain of the Edmonton Oilers.
She captured Mysterio at the Valley Zoo, sprayed him with a can of silly string spider web, and then rescued Ference in the nick of time, thus saving the day! Social media exploded, and not just in Edmonton, as folks like then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Thomas Mulcair, Kevin Smith, Premier Rachel Notley, and thousands of locals cheered Mable on via Twitter and Facebook.
It made headlines around the world, and made Spider-Mable an instant celebrity in her adoring hometown. It was the perfect showcase of the good people who call Edmonton home, the ones who take time out of their busy lives to make a complete stranger feel better.
 |
| The benefit concert for the victims of the Fort MacMurray wildfires, held June 29, 2016 at Commonwealth Stadium (photo by Amber Bracken/ The Canadian Press). |
There are so many examples of this sort of communal benevolence and compassion for others here in Edmonton, like when locals came together to support those affected by the intense wildfires of Fort McMurray and area in May 2016; or like the endless number of groups and organizations dedicated to those who are less fortunate or in distress; and like the countless volunteers that always seem to pull together when someone or something in Edmonton needs them to.
Our city is full of fine folks who have the need to give, whether it’s their time, their resources, or simply their kind words. Without them, we’d have no annual festivals, no Food Bank, no Boyle Street or Mustard Seed, no cancer or MS walks; we’d have no heart and no soul. It’s the good people that make a city great! #yeglove
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