On June 28th we wrapped this years Federated Health campaign, and it was another great success! Not only did we do a fantastic job raising funds for our 21 health charities, but this year saw a tremendous amount of cross-ministry collaboration, agency inclusion, support across campaign teams, and fun co-operation and creativity. The group of volunteers who made this year’s campaign happen were such a joy to work alongside and made it a truly memorable event. We will be putting out a series of blogs that highlight some of the amazing people, events, and fun that made up this year’s campaign. We hope you enjoy!
The Year of the Silent Auction
2024 was definitely the year of the silent auction. We saw auctions occurring across the OPS. It is important to highlight that auctions are no small task to put together and require a great deal of work, done by our volunteers, to canvass businesses, community organizations, etc. to secure all the amazing prizes.
There were a variety of items on offer, including: artwork, maple syrup (made by an ADM from MND/IAO!), WestJet flights, seats on the Polar Bear Express, tickets to Canada’s Wonderland, sports events, local theatres, and attractions in Niagara, the list truly went on and on. There was something for everyone! MTO even had a Canadiens jersey signed by every member of the team. Thank you to everyone who donated items or canvassed for them.
SOLGEN used their internal connections to offer really fun experiences like tours of the Toronto Police Service Mounted Unit and Police Dog Services and also a Correctional Services Canine Program Tour. These experiences, plus plenty of other great offerings ended up raising over $13,000 for FHC!
Other successful auctions included MOF/TBS, TLTC/TSAA, MND/IAO, MOH, and OMAFA/MRA.
The 2024 auctions really raised the bar for years to come!
Raffles, Events and Other Campaign Initiatives
Alongside the auctions, there were plenty of raffles that occurred. These included donated vacation days (a hot seller – again thanks to everyone who donated days), and a Raptors signed jersey offered by the MCM/OHT joint campaign (lead by chair Wayne Kelly). We also saw several 50/50’s across the province. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Tribunal 50/50, ran by campaign chair Vineetha Jith, not only raised a bunch of money, but it saw the winner donate the winnings back to Federated Health – WOW! Other ministries with successful 50/50’s included IAO/MND (hosted by Debbie Wood & Caroline O’Brien’s), EDU (hosted by Maggie de Barra), MNRF (hosted by Darek Fiedukiwicz) and MOH (hosted by Randy Riddell).
And there were wonderful special events – our volunteers were so creative! How about MTO with their “Beach Bamboozle” organized by Jennifer Diodati – where donations enabled a coworker to beach-ify a coworker’s cubicle. Or maybe MPBSD, led by chair Shawna Fournier, with a crazy and fun pet contest. There was MOF’s chair Pauline Padmore who beautified the campaign with an orchid sale. We saw a Hot Ones hot sauce challenge at MCCSS where senior leaders, such as MCCSS Executive Lead Dr Andres Laxamana and campaign chair Ozlem Keser, answering thoughtful questions all the while burning their mouth with progressively hotter sauces; a tour of the beautiful Elgin Theatre by MCM/OHT; MECP chairs Erin Harrigan Podiaz and William Day had a professional chef lead a cooking class, and MOE had loads of events from beginning to end of their campaign including food, playoff hockey pools and games like Trivia.
The creativity, enthusiasm and fun that inspired these events was truly inspiring and made the campaign a laugh for all involved.
MCCSS’s Hot Ones Hot Sauce Challenge with campaign Exec Lead Andres
And food – what Federated Health campaign happens without all the wonderful food, from patties to samosas, cooking courses to fabulous baked goods. It wouldn’t be a Fed Health campaign without plenty of food! The OPP North East Region Headquarters even showed their commitment by taking advantage of a rain-free day to hold a pizza party outside.
Finally, we cannot pay tribute to campaign special events without a special shoutout to the event of all events, Verzuz 5! Damion Copeland puts in an enormous amount of work and passion to bring us the Verzuz song-battle event each year and we cannot thank him enough for making Federated Health a part of it. Damion is such a strong Fed Health advocate and encourages donations to Federated Health throughout this amazing event. Special shoutout also to Rob Irwin who not only gives his amazing MC skills to Verzuz but is a part of Federated Health events all across the OPS, every year, and is such a champion for us.
With that, we’ve reached another campaign end – new friends made, inter-ministry teams created and inventive and creative events executed with precision.
New provincial agencies joined us and existing ones like OLG and Metrolinx pioneered the use of an online payroll pledge platform. MCU managed to raise funds equivalent to pre-pandemic levels with only one-third of the staff. We could truly go on and on highlighting the successes this year.
And we say thank you and merci to you all.
Stay tuned for our blog next week which highlights some of the volunteer superstars that made all of this fun happen!
