Holdin' down the fort

Well we're back after the christmas holiday and I hope everyone out there enjoyed it! Lucky for me my mom's birthday is the 27th so i kind of get to enjoy double the celebrations. we opened presents and stuff on christmas eve this year so that we could visit my grandpa up in toronto which was great and then got to watch avatar for my mamjam's birthday, which by the way was crazy amazing.

But after a badly needed 4 day weekend, Amy and I got to return to the United Way office and hold down the fort for the next few days before another well deserved 4 days off :).

So today is going to be a slow catch up day. It took Amy and I almost 15 tries to be satisfied with this picture... clearly we are super excited to be back in our lovely office :)

I really don't have much to report just need to put my nose to the books and work, work, work! Happy New Year everyone!

Despite the cold, I always had a smile on my face... when I looked at Connie

So last Thursday and Friday the staffers at United Way of Quinte volunteered at the COLDEST P&G Sale I've ever participated in... this being said I0 am NOT looking forward to our January North Hastings Sale. If it's anything like this past sale (and I heard it was going to be much worse) I think I may be sick that day.... Anyways the point of my story was that I had the wonderful job of running the shopping sheets from outside inside, which doesn't sound so bad, except that my toes felt like they needed to be amputated within the first half hour... but like i said, despite the cold I always had a smile on my face... Connie straight up looked like a ninja cowgirl and gave me the giggles... everytime i looked in her direction. Join me:)...:

Everyone needs a little humbling embarrassment.

And boy did I get it. I've never been a great morning person, in fact I hate mornings. The problem is that I never help myself make mornings better (i.e. GO TO BED AT A DECENT HOUR!)... Although I know I should go to sleep and there usually isn't anything good on after 10pm anyways, I can never seem to will myself to sleep until its past midnight. This being said, the tale of my embarrassment unfolds...

So it's Sunday night and of course I hit the hay at a little past midnight and I full on konk out. My room was that perfect oven roast temperature where the second you're asleep you don't move an inch throughout the night...Anyways, all of a sudden I wake up and whip around to look at my clock (this is a normal occurrence for me... i have a tendency to sleep in due to lack of sleep time). I see that the clock reads 10:30 and just about have a heart attack.

Now because I'm such a horrible morning person my clock was actually about a half hour fast which I always forget in my zombielike morning state. I jumped out of bed knowing that my wonderfully caring co-workers probably think I've been murdered since I live solo, and raced to my cell phone which I always keep in my living room.

8 missed calls and 4 texts.

Before I get a chance type a single word I hear a knock at my door. Not even thinking about my bedroom attire I open the door to find my boss and our office volunteer Jack. "I'm sorry I'm not wearing any pants!" was about all I could muster in my panic stricken, delusional state. Followed by many "I suck"'s. Long story short, I think Connie said it best... I need an alarm clock that slaps me in the face to wake me up in the mornings... and to be honest if it saves me from answering the door in my knickers, I'd be willing to take a little slap every now and again.

First real snow fall of the year...

Nothing quite like waking up to the sound of a snowplow scraping across a parking lot...but there is always a positive in every situation. In this instance...SNOW, and I know there are many who are not fond of the white stuff but I am, and as much as I wasn't impressed by the god awful sound coming from my bedroom window, who can be upset to go outside into a beautiful white wonderland, find their car under 5 inches of snow and then walk to work because their parking lot was in fact not plowed? ...Not me, I'll tell you that much. I'm glad the possibility of a white Christmas is now in fact a possibility, even if it means wet socks and colder temperatures...But enough about the beautiful weather we are having, I may just have some other work to do...

So I hope everyone staying home today has a fantastic day off and everyone who's trudging to work, I hope you made it there safely!

: (

I know it's only Tuesday but it is so weird not having Brandi here! Her last day was this past Friday and I miss her already.... well everyone misses her already. We all wish her the best success butttt she should just come back ;) Thank you to everyone who came out to her going away party. It's amazing to see how many people Brandi has had the opprtunity to meet and make a positive difference in their lives. She's certainly helped me out through a lot of things and I can't thank her enough for her open door policy... whether she intended for that or not :)


But anyways... we'll miss you Brandi but we know you'll be incredibly successful in your new position!

It's still Charitable Giving When You Gamble ;)!

Well I've been completely swamped trying to get out all our thank yous to our donors and sponsors for our past events and haven't had time to reflect on what a great night Casino Olympia was! Over 250 guests attended and raised over $20,000 for our 75 funded programs throughout Hastings & Prince Edward Counties.

This event was a ton of fun, it was hosted in my hometown at CFB Trenton and it was great to see new crowds come out to a great United Way event and have fun. Between Black Jack, Balloon Pop and all the other great games we had, thousands of dollars worth of prizes were won. Thank you to all our great volunteers for manning the Black Jack and games tables, our fantastic committee for all their hard work, CFB Trenton for ALL their help and of course everyone who donated & sponsored the event!!! I hope everyone had fun because I sure did :)

Nothing like a little DDR while on duty

So this past weekend United Way of Quinte and Famous Players Belleville 8 hosted the second annual Starlight Film Festival. This all night movie marathon gave current high school students the opportunity to watch The Dark Knight, Twilight and I love You Man with unlimited pop, popcorn and arcade games... all night! It was an awesome night and I think we all had a great time... maybe especially me :)

A huge thank you goes out to Famous Players Belleville 8 for all their assistance in making the evening a success as well as American Eagle, Pita Pit, Reid's Dairy, St. John Ambulance, Futureshop, Culligan and of course everyone who came out!

I love standing outside when it's hailing out.

Last Thursday close to 1000 shoppers stopped by the Trenton Public Works Yard to shop tons of great deals on laundry soap, hair care products, sports items and much much more.

This sale was a ton of fun and although it was a 12 hour day, it certainly didn't feel that way this time around. Maybe because I didn't get stuck outside for hours in the hail directing traffic :P poor Larry.

Anyways this sale was a great success so a huge thank you goes out to everyone who made it possible including all our volunteers, P&G, Amer Sports, LMB Transport, City of Quinte West, Choice Reefer Systems, Sears, A & P, 241 Pizza, Pepsico, Culligan, Pizza Hut, Trenton Cold Storage, Nestle, Parmalat, Domino's Pizza and St. John Ambulance.

Thank you to everyone who came out to shop with us and help raise money for United Way of Quinte!

Saddle Up for United Way

Having never been on a horse before, Saddle Up for United Way was a great experience. Scary yes, but still great. 60 riders this year trotted the trails of Batawa Ski Hill to raise money for United Way of Quinte. At the end of the day over $3500 was raised and Lori Mallett who was the top fundraising adult, raised over $1,000 for United Way single handedly. A huge thank you goes out to her and all those who raised money for Untied way of Quinte!

Too much turkey!

Why does it have to be so difficult coming back to work after such a fun filled food weekend? Oh right because we are in the midst of the most hectic time for all United Way of Quinte staff....and don't I know it! Between warehouse sales, trail rides, film festivals and casinos I don't know if I'm coming, going, there already or about to set sail. It's a good thing everyone else has their heads on straight or I'd think my eyesights going to!

But as I write this i can almost hear the work piling up on my desk... I hope EVERYONE had a fantastic holiday and I also hope you are all looking forward to our upcoming events in November!

On September 26th United Way had their Annual Warehouse Sale. There were over 1300 people who came out to take advantage fo the sales and their bargain shopping raised over $101,000! We had a ton of great support from local companies and well as volunteer so a HUGE thank you goes out to our 200 volunteers who worked all day to make this event a success. And another HUGE thanks goes out to all the generous sponsors who made this day even possible:

RentX, Amer Sports, Procter & Gamble, Pizza Pizza, Culligan, Papa John's, Kellogg's, Froggy Fundraising, Domino's, Home Depot, Brenda's Pizza Factory, Tim Hortons, Papa's Kitchen Pizzeria, Hawkin's Cheezies, Parmalat, Great Canadian Bagel, Subway, Canada Post, Pizza Hut, Nestle, City of Belleville, Sigma Stretch Film, The Intelligencer, Ryder, T.A.S. Communications, Campbell's Orchards, Battlefield, A&W, Bob's Portable Toilets, St. John Ambulance, Herbert's Chip Truck, L&B, Coice Reefer Systems and The Intelligencer.

Belleville Dragon Boat Festival

We had a great turn out at the 2009 Belleville Dragon Boat Festival! It was a beautiful day of races and fierce competition on the Moira River. Huge congrats to The Wonder Women of CFUW for winning this year's Spirit Competition and the Belleville Dragon Boat Club for winning this year's "A" Division Championships! Awesome job everyone, together we raised over $20,000! I had way too much fun at this event and can't wait for next year. Thank you to all our generous sponsors:

Belleville Dragon Boat Club, Applebee's, Wellington & District Lions Dragon Boat Club, Culligan, Mr. Sub, Belleville Toyota, The Quinte Mall, City of Belleville, Boston Pizza, Amer Sports, Procter & Gamble, CFB Trenton, Cobourg Dragon Boat Club, Best Western, Mr. Sub & Coffee Time on Dundas, Academy Towing, Swiss Chalet, T.A.S. Communications, Red Ball Radio, Soccer Extreme, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Canadian Labour Congress, Shoppers Drug Mart on Dundas, Choice Reefer Systems, Mike Scott from Back in Motion, Eastern Lift Truck, Montanas, Tipper Financial and Reid's Dairy.

Seeing is Believing Tour 2009

This year following our Belleville Launch we escorted several guests around Belleville to check out a variety of different agencies we fund, Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's Seeing is Believing Tour. Guests had the opportunity to see first hand where donations to the United Way of Quinte go by visiting a few of our agencies and learning from the employees and recipients there. A big thank you goes out to the City of Belleville Transit, cnib, Continuing On In Education, First Adventure and Big Brothers Big Sisters for making this special event possible!

I am too busy for my own good.

So i'm procrastinating on other work to get this done but I've left this for far too long... The week after the Belleville Campaign Launch was our QW Launch at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 110. It was a ton of great fun and we raised over $1500, so thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed a hot bowl of chili for United Way!

Special Thanks to our sponsors and donors:

A&P, Britannia Seafood and Steakhouse, City of Quinte West, Culligan, , Dapp’s Restaurant, Great Canadian Oil Change, Helen’s Family Restaurant, Holiday Inn, Kelsey’s Restaurant, Lottie Jones Florist, M and R Auto Repair, MacIntosh Cafe and Catering, Matt Goodman from Quinte Broadcasting, McDonald’s, Nestle, Pine Ridge Knit and Sew, Price Chopper, RBC, Rona, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 110, Rumours Restaurant and Pub, Smylie’s Independent, Solo Salon, Stix and Stones Billiards, Tangles Professional Hair Design, Taishan Gardens, The Experience, The Golden Valley Restaurant, Tim Hortons, Tomasso’s, Trenton Home Hardware Building Centre, Tri & Run Sports, Victorian Order of Nurses, Women’s Auxiliary, YMCA of the City of Quinte West and a special thank you to Marty Halloran!

Two Months Later

I now understand the importance of planning ahead in this job. It's insane really how many hours and late nights it takes to make sure an hour and a half event goes off without a hitch.

Yesterday morning we luanched our 2009 campaign and it was a hit! Thanks to our sponsors: The Quinte Mall, A&W, P&G, Kim Taylor Signs, Bob House Photography, The Intelligencer, Thompson Tents, Red Ball Radio, Culligan, Starbucks, Belleville Art Association and Bell. Without them we could not have done what we did.

Thank you to everyone who came out it was an awesome turn out and thank you to our campaign chair Mark Philbin for rocking it on the mic!

So everyone look forward to our next event the Quinte West Chili Luncheon! Full of great food, great people and only $5. Til next time....

My Life No Longer as a United Way Intern...

Well it happened. After a 3 month internship it's finished, done, kaput, that's all. And what do I have to show for it? Nothing...but a brand new career opportunity! I tried to be sly, did it work? : )

After the completetion of Day of Caring (which was a huge success by the way!), United Way offered my a full time position as the Campaign Manager of Communications & Special Events. I am so excited to have this opportunity, i don't even know what to do with it! But with all the additional projects and workload i haven't had a chance to share the news, so that's my excuse for slacking.

Now to play catch up!

Day of Caring:

Day of Caring went off without a hitch as we oversaw 14 local companies release teams of employees to participate. With the help of title sponsors HYDRO ONE & CINTAS and all other sponsors (Canadian Tire, A&P, Weston bakeries, No Frills, Home Hardware, Tim Hortons, QVSS, Bell, Amer Sports, Reids Dairy, Home Depot, Nestle and P&G) 17 projects were completed at 14 agencies throughout Hastings & Prince Edward Counties.

Thank you to EVERYONE who made this day possible including our committee members: Alyssa Robb from Hydro One, Jennifer Broek from Cintas and Scott Ward from P&G and all companies who participated and helped complete projects in our community:
Community Living Prince Edward, RBC, Stream Global Services, GH Manufacturing, Kellogg, O'Flynn Weese, Airborne Systems, Community Care Access Centre, CN, Hydro One, Cintas, Reids Dairy, Home Depot, Nestle and P&G.

Waterfront Festival:

This year United Way had the priviledge to gain support at the 2009 Waterfront Festival with all proceeds from Extreme Rush Adventure rockwall being donated back to us. Thank you to the whole crew at Extreme Rush for donating an entire rock wall and a banner to United Way. Please visit them at http://www.extremerush.ca/ for all your personal training and rockwall needs!

A big thank you also goes out to all our volunteers for the event!

Belleville Dragon Boat Festival:

This year our Dragon Boat Festival is taking place September 19th, 2009 at Victoria Park. We already have a few registered teams but want more, more, more! We have an early bird special going on until July 31st so adult teams can register for only $400, youth crew registration is $200. Please support United Way & your community and get a 20 person team together for a full day of fun in the (hopefully!) sun! Contact me for more info at 613-962-9531 or by e-mail at andie.camolese@belleville.unitedway.ca

I will try to be more frequent with my posts :) !!

Until next time ... :)

DAY OF CARING!

It's amazing no matter how much time you have to plan for an event it still seems like it arrived WAY too fast. This year's Day of Caring took place June 25th and I have to say it was interesting. Working behind the scenes to get all the little things done is exhausting but the reward is quick and fulfilling. We had 14 companies participate this year at 11 agencies throughout Hastings and Prince Edward Counties and not one person left without a smile on their face :). Teams of company volunteers were able to witness where there United Way donations go, while assisting the agencies with projects they don't have the resources to complete.

I've learnt a lot about organizing an event from this experience but I've also learned a lot about helping your community. I hope everyone took something away from Day of Caring because I sure did. Thank you to everyone who participated and we hope to see you next year!

Special thanks goes out to our generous title sponsors Hydro One and Cintas!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this special day:

Canadian Tire, A&P, Weston Bakeries, No Frills, Home Hardware, Tim Hortons, Quinte Vocational Support Services, Bell, Amer, Community Living Prince Edward, RBC, Stream, GH Manufacturing, Kellogg's, O'Flynn Weese, Airborne Systems, Community Care Access Centre, Reid's Dairy, Home Depot, Nestle and P&G!

My Dragon Boat Radio Tour

So today concluded my very first radio tour to promote this year's Community Dragon Boat Festival. This is the third year partnering with the Belleville Dragon Boat Club for the festival and I can't wait to be a part of it.

We started out the tour last Friday at Rock 107 with Tommy and Scotty and since this was the very first time I was expecting to speak, I of course chickened out and watched Sara take the reigns and show me how its done...thanks Sara! We had some laughs though and having never really seen the ins and outs of radio I was psyched to be there. It's really too bad that listeners couldn't see Scotty's shirt which he affectionately dubbed aggressive salmon...this had us all rolling and Sara renamed the shirt colour marshmallow peep pink.

Our next stop was a visit to Mix 97 with Sean Kelly on Monday, and I have to say this was a lot more intimidating than the first radio station we visited because I actually had to speak into a microphone for this one :P ...it wasn't pretty.

But not all was lost when we spoke with Charity Brown and yes, that's right I actually spoke to her. It was a little less nerve racking, maybe because it was my third time in a studio but none the less I did my thing and we got out of there before I had time to embarrass myself :)

Almost right after our interview with Charity, Sara and I meandered over to another studio where we were able to chat it up with Sara's dad,Steve Marlin at CJBQ. I got to take a back seat for this interview but I didn't mind, the father daughter banter always gets me laughing and I doubt I could have said much anyways!

And finally the tour ended at 95.5 classic hits with Mark and Kathleen. Again I was able to take a back seat but I thought it might be the safest spot for me since Mark and Sara were still battling over the Dancing With the Stars mirror ball trophy. But it was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll be seeing more of Mark since he's United Way's Campaign Chair this year.

But for everyone who's interested in our Community Dragon Boat Festival, it takes place September 19th from 9am to 4pm and promises to be a fantastic day. The cost is only $450 for an adult team of 20 people but if you register prior to July 31st, cost is only $400. Youth teams of 20 paddlers ages 13-18 costs only $200.

Register right away so we can make this years the biggest and greatest Community Dragon Boat Festival to date!

IT'S JUNE ALREADY?!?!

I can't believe it! May went by so fast, which means there is only 24 days until Day of Caring....I'm starting to get nervous! ...in a good way of course. Most of our plans have been set in stone and now we're just following up on the minor details. This year promises to be a great Day of Caring with a lot of new teams joining us for the first time...But that's not all that's happening in June, my graduation is set for the 11th and my internship end is set for the end of the month! Two months completed and one more to go. I'm still in shock that I've even had the opportunity to work with United Way for this long :)

Now it shouldn't take two months to plan a day to care, we should all be doing that on a regular basis ;) but for this special Day of Caring I still have some work to do, so back to the paper pushing!

Hope to see you at our upcoming events! --------->

Two Months Ago...

Two months ago I would have never thought I'd still be working away at United Way...but I am! And I couldn't be more thrilled (and grateful they kept me around). It's been so busy these past few weeks; finishing posters and invitations for this years campaign events, working on Day of Caring details and doing anything I can to help out.
I can't believe how much United way has opened my eyes to our community and the organizations within it. I would have never known about all the amazing people who work here and all the work they do to help make the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties better.
I'm grateful for all the experiences I've been a part of to date and hope my adventure here won't end anytime soon! But no rest for the weary, back to work I go!!
And don't forget to check out the list of upcoming events that I hope you all will be a part of!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

With so many events on the go and overlapping, these past few weeks have been getting very busy...Luckily everything I do is fun so its not discouraging at all!

A couple days ago I was able to participate in a Caring for Others training session. Caring for Others is a great United Way funded program that brings different types of role models into grade 4 classrooms to discuss age appropriate volunteer opportunities. There I got to listen to a bunch of great speakers talk about their experience in the classroom and I became more and more interested.

I think its a great program and I hope at some point I'll be able to participate in an actual classroom.

Until then I need to get back to work and plan one fantastic Day of Caring.

Busy Times

I can't believe how busy its getting! Day of caring faxes have started to come in and I'm getting more and more excited about the event. This is my first time ever participating in it and I can't wait to see what a success it will be.

Dragon Boat Festival preparation is on its way as well and we're hoping to make that event bigger and better than ever before. Hopefully we'll get enough teams out on race day to have tons of races and tons of fun.

Now I'm just learning a little more about social media so we can provide our community with the best resources available.

No more time to blog, work, work, work :)

Communication...

Hello again :D

After a nice weekend away from my desk I've returned to United Way and am continuing what I was doing at home....and by that I mean launching our new Facebook page, learning to twitter and continuing this blog.

I'm excited to begin Day of Caring preparations and continue getting ready for this years campaign.

There is a lot of work to do but I have 2 full months to learn and grow within my position here and help the United Way of Quinte as much as I can. Its really amazing how much I didn't know about the United Way and in just one month my eyes have been opened and I'm extremely excited to see where I can help take the united Way.

Until the next post.

My life as an intern so far...

Hi everyone!

I've been an Intern with the United Way of Quinte for four weeks now and I don't think I could have been happier with how this time has gone by.

I started my internship in the midst of United Way's 50th Anniversary Gala preparation, what a crazy week. From setting up vignettes to dressing up for the black tie event to staying up until 3am taking down decorations at the Quinte mall, the week was filled with exciting challenges and amazing rewards.

The Gala was a huge hit and since then I've been sitting in on different meetings preparing for this years campaign that will be filled with many exciting dates including Saddle up for United Way, several warehouse sales, Day of Caring, and the list goes on (for a full list of events and description check out the events section!).

I'm having a great time learning more about my community and the role I can play in it, I hope many of you will come on board with United Way and support your community!