4 decades after he pledged a million beds to needy children worldwide, Canadian’s family on the way to complete milestone in city

Thirty-nine years ago, Murray Dryden of Canada donated 50 bed kits to orphans at St Crispin’s Home in Pune, having spent much of his own childhood sleeping on a cold floor. Such was the reaction to his gesture that he continued the work and, along the way, promised himself that one day he would reach out to a million such needy children around the world.

Dryden died in 2004 before he could reach the milestone. His family carried on his work worldwide and will reach it - in and around Pune, where it all started. Thirteen members of the Dryden clan will visit Pune next week and complete his dream by donating 3,000 bed kits, including the millionth.

“Because it was in Pune that my dad Murray Dryden distributed the first 50 kits in 1970, we decided as a family to return here the year when the millionth bed kit would be donated,” says Dave Dryden, who will arrive in Pune on February 19 with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, three siblings, four grandchildren, a stepbrother, his wife and their son, all part of the charity Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) Murray Dryden had founded in 1970.

“We are not trying to rig it so that the actual millionth bed kit is donated in Pune. We will have 15 distributions this year, totalling 69,000 bed kits, and are calling each of them the millionth. That way, we can celebrate the achievement of this goal in all the countries we go to,” Dave Dryden said.

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