From the Desk of … Jocelyn Lamont
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So spring has sprung and here we are … pulling out the clubs, tuning up the bikes, planting flowers, gearing up for another summer! This is one of my favourite times of year – lilacs everywhere you look, those trees with beautiful pink flowers in full bloom, socks and shoes traded for sandles and barefeet. Even the odd rainy day makes me smile at this time of year – it’s good for the grass!
Here at the Candlelighters office we have been keeping busy with “planning”. There are a lot of events and activities that we have the good fortune to be involved in over the coming months and I have had the pleasure of working with a number of people in the preliminary planning and organization. But before we get into that, let me just tell you about the recent happenings.
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On Friday February 22, the last poker night of the “Chips for Charity” poker series, hosted by Smith Petrie Carr & Scott Insurance Brokers took place at the RA Centre. It was a great success, with thanks to Greg Janes and Gary Thomas. $10,000 was raised, bringing the total of this series two events to $20,000. Together with the twenty thousand dollars the original series was able to raise, Candlelighters was the recipient of $40,000 and we made a whole bunch of new friends … Confederation Poker Club members included! Thanks to Derek, Allison and Dan, volunteers extraordinaire! And to Gregg L … thanks for spending time chatting with me, I will look forward to working with you in the future!
The Capital Business Association welcomed me very warmly to their meeting on February 29th, thanks to Bob Nemchin who extended the invitation for me to introduce Candlelighters to them.
What do you get when you put 3 Peters, 2 Roberts, a Derek, Tony, Rick, Martin and Brady together, then throw in some Gary for good measure? SPIN – a dynamic group of individuals who collectively host some outstanding events, where putting good people together is always a good thing. Advanced Business Interiors was the place to be on Thursday March 6th for SPIN’s “Putt your best foot forward” evening. Thank you gentlemen, as always it was both an honour and a pleasure. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon.
I enjoyed my judging duties at the Miss Teen Eastern Ontario pageant in Renfrew the weekend of April 2 – 4th. That organizing committee … WOW. That’s all I can say. Congratulations to all the delegates, the volunteers, sponsors and to you Patti. You are a wonderful host. Thank you!
Candlelighters was given a wonderful opportunity by our friend Mark Vidalin, who introduced Candlelighters to his colleagues. The result was Candlelighters presence at the 7 x 11 Art Show Event that took place May 1 – 11. Seven local artists came together for what was an absolutely phenomenal showing of various mediums of artwork. And they selected Candlelighters to be the recipient charity during that time. But more importantly, Mark and his fellow artists really worked together on our behalf to raise awareness about our organization and what we are all about. Thank you one and all!
Candlelighters Annual General Meeting took place on March 28th. I am extremely pleased and very grateful for the continued dedication of our volunteer board of directors.
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Chipping In For Charity celebrates 5 years this coming June 3rd. We are extremely hopeful to successfully achieve our $200,000 fundraising goal this year. Heartfelt thanks to Hunter Li at Teramach Technologies for his unwavering support of Candlelighters over the past five years. Chipping has been the foundation of what is a strong and much appreciated partnership between Teramach and Candlelighters. And how about that organizing committee? Wow. Double Wow. Guy, Darlene, Roger … thank you. You made it happen – again. Tamsin, Patti and Jason are also a huge part of our success. All of you – my hat is off to you. This, Candlelighters’ signature event, is the result of your collective skills, expertise, time, effort and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it! I can’t wait … less then three weeks ‘til tee-off!
The DragonBoat Festival is also fast approaching … our boat of paddlers is full. We are fortunate to be joined by Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre. Yasir is an extremely good friend of Candlelighters. The constituency office is right in our neighbourhood and I have been so lucky to have opportunity to work with Jackie. She is a wonder! I am thoroughly impressed and enjoying working together with both of them on having September officially recognized as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the provincial legislature.
Thanks to our friends at the CHEO Foundation and to everyone who road in Tour Nortel. I would like to specially thank the Shepherd Family, who road on behalf of Candlelighters. It was a rainy morning, but good to see so many of you. Shelley and Justine – thank you. Very nice to see your two friendly faces throughout the morning. JC… fantastic.
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Writing this newsletter always reminds me of just how lucky I am. I get to work with a great staff – Tamsin, Mark, Patti and Jason – and they really are great. We’ve even had a special visitor joining us these past couple Wednesdays… Sam… another smiling face from the ‘girls’ clan. They really are too much fun. But between staff and all the wonderful people I get to meet and work with … I feel very thankful.
If you haven’t checked us out online in awhile, do so at www.candlelighters.net. Jason is the web designer/master that has us looking so fantastic these days. And he is diligently keeping us up to date, so watch for all the news that is the news in the wonderful world of Candlelighters. Jason, you really do rock.
Congratulations to longtime Board member Donrey Hamilton and her husband Luis on the birth of their son, Darien born May 6th