In last week’s blog, we spoke about all the fantastic events that happened in ministries, participating provincial agencies and the OPP. This week, we are going to dig deeper and give special thanks to people who developed, worked on, created, baked for, organized and got stuff for special events like bake sales, auctions, raffles, book sales, etc. As life begins to return to normal post-campaign, here is a list of just a few people who have been outstanding. Keeping in mind that they were all supported, encouraged, etc. by other volunteers but we just can’t name everyone.
Raffles (including 50/50s, vacation days and a Raptors signed shirt):
- Maggie de Barra – Ministry of Education raffle – one of the top fund-raising raffles of this campaign (vacation days)
- Vineetha Jith’s – Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeal Tribunal raffle – the winner of that raffle donated the cash back to the campaign!
- Caroline O’Brien & Debbie Wood – MND/ /Indigenous Affairs Office joint campaign raffle,
- Darek Fiedukiewicz: – Ministry of Natural Resources raffle
- Randy Riddell – Ministry of Health divisional raffle
- Wayne Kelly, Heritage Trust – Raptors’ shirt
Special Events
There was a huge range of special events, literally something for everyone from bake sales plus all-time favourites samosas, patties and pizza to step classes and yoga in the park to pet picture contests. Here are a few of the names associated with some of these events.
- Jennifer Diodati: MTO’s Beach Bamboozle
- Shawna Fournier: MPBSD’s Pet Contest
- Pauline Padmore: MOF orchid sale
- MECP chairs Erin Harrigan Podiaz and William Day: a professional chef-led cooking class
- Damion Copeland: Verzuz, Leagues of Champions – organized for the 5th year
- 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
Volunteer Engagement & Support Superstars
Once executive teams are in place, it’s up to the team to recruit all the volunteers they need to produce the events, raffles, auctions, etc. Federated Health runs on the efforts of many, not a few.
Lilly Whitham and the MOH team: Teresa Nicholls, Karina Baylon, Samantha Raposo, Kelli Seepaul, Gurleen Matharu, Sue Janzen, Adesua Adebo-Young, Sean Doomernik. Their Let’s go viral theme was so fitting for their meme event and of course their business vertical – health! And the Little Lilly meme picture and caption was fantastic!
Others included:
Ozlem Keser, Casey Palmer and Andres Laxamana. MCCSS .
Cathy Dranitsaris Jane Raposo, Yoassry Elzohairy, and Michelle Waldron, all MTO.
Growth & Expansion
How did teams change and grow this year? EDU and TCU decided to do separate campaigns and MCU (Jason Arandjelovic, Exec Lead and Ravneet Dhesi) managed pre-pandemic levels of fundraising with one-third less staff in the ministry. And Didier Pomerleau and Maggie de Barra at EDU did a super successful raffle.
The provincial agencies who participate really adapted the campaigns to their needs (Metrolinx), and OLG lead Barb who has been again did a great job and both Metrolinx and OLG rolled out their online platforms for donations.
This year saw Ontario Trillium Foundation start selling lottery tickets for the first time. And other agency partners like AGCO, Auditor General, iGaming, Ombudsman, Ontario Northland, the Science Centre, and WSIAT have really embraced the campaign and made it their own.
Awareness & Education
Awareness and education comes from ministry/agency/OPP interaction directly with our charities who come or send guest speakers to share information, stories and in the process, educate us about what life is like with one of the ailments that are supported. Shoutouts go to Greg St Pierre, Irina Afandi Sandhya Franco, Sandra Miller, Neivin Shalabi, Sarah Mir, Diana Kasianova and Samantha Tamas, all of MLITSD, who planned and delivered ministry-wide and divisional sessions with Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, Cancer Society. Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy. Alzheimer Society. Heart & Stroke and Diabetes Canada.
Pauline Padmore and Frances Ryan organized events at both MOF locations, Toronto and Oshawa. The team delivered onsite events that showcased various charities and had some on-site to talk with staff. The term Impact Expo was coined and will probably become a tradition at MOF.
This year Federated Health Charities tried a new event open to everyone, Lunch & Learns that featured Ontario Public Service staff with lived experiences These impactful sessions featured 2 speakers per session, Andrew Dundas (TBS) speaking about his experience with ALS, Liz Humphreys (TBS) speaking about her experience with Cancer, Jodi Walsh (MCCSS) speaking about her lived experience with Alzheimer’s, and Cathy Dranitsaris (MTO) speaking about her lived experience with Crohns and Colitis. Powerful sessions and we received responses such as “that was very emotional, but it reminded me about the importance of giving and supporting the charities.”
Finally, it was the year of the auction, many mentioned in our last blog. However, we failed to highlight SOLGEN who managed to raise a huge amount. Kudos!
