THESE TWO MOTHER THANKERS WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO THANK ONE ANOTHER.

When my daughter JouJou started kindergarten in 2017, what mattered most to me was that we would form a tight knit community of new friends in our hometown of Deep Cove, on the North Shore of Vancouver, Canada.

Well, in a nutshell, meeting the ridiculously great teachers of SHERWOOD PARK ELEMENTARY AND THE SUPER FUN PARENTS of these incredible kids has not disappointed.

At Christmas, when JouJou and I handed out bags of supplies to the women of the downtown east side, ONE MOM — AIMEE WEBBE — ADDED HER OWN HANDMADE KNIT HATS AND SCARVES to each purse as a means to further help these women, who — frequently overlooked and forgotten about entirely — are living an often-times bleak life on the streets. Aimee’s hats were the highlight of those bags.

So in January, when Aimee gave me two of those awesome hats for JouJou and my other wee daughter, Birdie, I WROTE AIMEE A THANK YOU CARD.

AND THINGS GOT UGLY FROM THERE.

• She wrote me a Thank You card for the Thank You card for the Thank You hats.
• I wrote her a Thank You card for the Thank You card for the Thank You card for the Thank You hats.
• She wrote me another one.
• Jou and I tied HELIUM “THANK YOU” BALLOONS to her vehicle.
• She made a series of LARGE PINK NEON SIGNS that, when read in sequence while driving down Deep Cove’s busiest road, said: “Thank. You. Mary-Jo.”
• I then did what anyone in my position would. I hired the University of British Columbia’s A Capella Group/Glee Club to surprise Aimee at our kids’ class at pick-up, wearing THANK YOU AIMEE tees — while expertly belting out Irene Cara’s 1980s hit, THE THEME SONG FROM FLASHDANCE. (The lyrics: “What a feeling... I am music now!” may have been altered to: “What a feeling... thank you, Aimee, now!” for the purposes of the choral flashmob.)
• In response, a couple weeks later, SHE BLANKETED MY CAR — and the cars of more than 100 others across Canada and as far away as the United Kingdom who all took to Social Media — in “Thank You, Mary-Jo” magnetic bumper stickers. Only Aimee took things a step further, and brought our ongoing Thank You War back to its roots — after all, this is about living a grateful life and extending a hand to those people who could use a little lift.
• In 2018, my company — Mary-Jo Dionne Productions — launched THE MILLIPEDE PROJECT, whereby we are committed to getting 500 Vancouver-area kids-in-need into a new pair of back-to-school shoes for the upcoming school year. And, if you’re reading this, YOU CAN HELP US do that very thing — just as all the people who agreed to sport a “Thank You, Mary-Jo” bumper sticker on their cars helped us, resulting in Aimee presenting me with a group donation which will purchase approximately 25 pairs of shoes. Wow!

If you’ve seen my most recent response, no — there isn’t really a movie called “Thank You, Aimee.” But with the help of some amazing Sherwood Park Elementary parents, the “Thank You, Aimee” movie trailer was my latest attempt at out-thanking her. Because THESE TWO MOTHER THANKERS WILL STOP AT NOTHING to out-thank one another. And if you help us help 500 kids-in-need, we will stop at nothing to thank you either.

THANK YOU. (No, really, thank you.)

With endless gratitude,
Mary-Jo and Aimee