NEWS RELEASE
CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION OF GUELPH AND WELLINGTON
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The Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington is set to treat their guests to another destination-themed Around the World Gala with this year’s Bollywood event.
The evening is presented by local Co-operators Insurance Advisor, Dan Burnham, and will include the presentation of the Foundation’s annual awards.
Thanks to the support of a very generous community, the Children’s Foundation has been able to help more children each year, however there is still a challenge in reaching the families that are most in need in our community.
These are the families that may not be reaching out for help because they don’t feel any hope for a brighter future for their children and so don’t seek the programs that are here to help them.
Through targeted outreach and partnerships with social service agencies and local school boards, coupled with the support of funds raised at last year’s gala, we were able to extend a ray of hope to many of those families, and as a result:
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420 children who weren’t previously funded by Free to Play were able to participate in summer camp, music, sports and more.
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Additional funding for Food & Friends student nutrition programs allowed many programs to increase their operations, including adding extra days of providing healthy snacks.
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Future Fund scholarship recipients received $1,000 rather than only $400 in previous years.
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60 more children were supported over the holidays by Adopt-A-Family.
This year’s Around the World Gala will aim to raise enough funds to sustain this important work. Work that would not be possible without the assistance of donors and volunteers. The Children’s Foundation is pleased to recognize the following award recipients:
Sandra Weafer Community Champion of the Year – Ontario Student Nutrition Services
Andrew Reimer from Crown Dairy recently established Ontario Student Nutrition Services (OSNS) to help ease the daunting and time-consuming task of shopping for groceries for Food & Friends student nutrition programs.
OSNS works with food vendors to get the best food prices, ensure they meet nutritional guidelines, and offer them to programs to be ordered online and delivered to the schools.
Their focus on fixing this challenge with a new approach has helped ease the workload for many program coordinators with 64 student nutrition programs actively ordering food through OSNS.
Sponsor of the Year – Wellington Motors
Wellington Motors became a true holiday hero by providing space for the Adopt-A-Family holiday program for two years. The task of finding a location for the program is onerous and sometimes stressful because of the short term nature, how much space is required, and a limited budget.
Not only did Wellington Motors help us meet all of these objectives, but their donated space on Michener Road was one of the most comfortable spaces used by the over 40 volunteers who operate Adopt-A-Family. During this two year period, 4,048 children were assisted through Adopt-A-Family.
Volunteer of the Year – Nicole DeBeyer
Nicole DeBeyer’s passion and dedication to bringing healthy food to hungry minds is an inspiration. The job of feeding over 450 students a hot healthy breakfast and 130 students a hot healthy lunch each day at Centre Wellington District High School is no small feat!
Her dedication to ensuring no student in her school goes hungry is evident in the extra time she puts in outside of her work day to keep the programs fresh and healthy.
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