Life as a Campaign Manager at United Way of Quinte

Helllooooo London

2010-12-29T13:02:00.004-05:00

Time for a change! I've been working at United Way now for just over a year and a half and with things changing all the time, I thought I'd see my United Way path send me westward to London. Since the beginning of December I've been learning how to work from home while living in a new city, almost twice as large as Belleville with over 7 times the population.

It wouldn't have been such a different situation except for the welcome wagon of snow the first week I arrived:

Compared to Bellevegas and all the cities along the 401, I felt like I'd been living in Alaska for the last month. Despite the cold however, I've been able to hunker down and work away on our upcoming events.

This year our Achievement celebration is taking place at the Empire Theatre Thursday, January 20th and our North Hastings Warehouse Sale is Saturday,February 5th at the Bancroft Public Works Yard. For more information, please check out our Facebook event page or our website at www.unitedwayofquinte.ca

Please don't forget that our campaign is ending at an earlier date this year, December 31st. So please, if you are able to, give this year and support our community.

Campaign 1, Blog - 0

2010-12-08T09:55:00.008-05:00

So once September hits for us United Way-ers, campaign takes precedent and unfortunately leaves me with little time to update! I've tried my best to keep up, but its been a whirlwind of events this past little while!

After Dragon Boats we launched our campaign at Quinte Mall, posting a goal for $1,635,000 (below). It was a great event where we were able to take folks through the day to day struggles of a lower income family in the Quinte area. The outcome was unsettling. Many individuals throughout Hastings & Prince Edward County have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet and sometimes are even unable to do so. I think the activity was a success allowing individuals to realize how difficult it can be for some families to live a decent lifestyle here and be able to provide for their families.

Big thanks to Culligan, Quinte Mall, A&W and Tim Hortons for making the event possible!

After our Belleville Launch, we held our Quinte West Chili Luncheon at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 110 in Trenton. It was another great success raising over $5,000 for our campaign. Big thanks to Marty Halloran for putting the event together, Matt Goodman from Rock 107 for emceeing, Ellie Barker (seen below) for the decorations and all the local businesses that donated items to the event.

Since our launch we have had two sales one was a surprisingly successful online sale raising $60,000 and the other was our Annual Quinte West Sale that raised over $30,000 we also held our Investors Group Denim & Diamonds Charity Casino Presented by Darrell Smith, CFP (Col. Cochrane, CFB Trenton, Bruce Francis, committee volunteer and Chief of Police Cory McMullan pictured below) that raised over $20,000 for our campaign. These past three months have been so faced paced, I can't believe it ends in just 4 short weeks!

So please remember to send those donations in if you haven't done so! We're almost in sight of our goal and with your help we can make it!

Dragon-huh?

2010-09-07T09:17:00.013-04:00

Well, if you're anything like me, you will have never (or rarely) heard of a sport called dragon boating. First time I heard about it was last year when I started at United Way and helped organize the festival here in Belleville. It always amazes me as to how much prep goes into putting on any event and in a blink of an eye... it's over! Thanks to Cheryll Drumm, Nancy Lewis, Bill Daniels and Kay Manderville of the Belleville Dragon Boat Club for their expertise and assistance in running and organizing the festival as well as all the volunteers who made the day possible.

So for those of you who don't know, Dragon boating is a water sport for teams of 20 to paddle down a 200m raceway. It is THE most intense two minutes of any water sport I've ever competed in.

This year 17 teams made their way to Victoria Park and set up camp to watch and partake in the races on August 28th.

Tournament Champions were the Rotary Rockets, made up of members from the Rotary Club of Quinte Sunrise, Top Fundraising Team was Licenced to Paddle, Top Fundraising Individual was Mary Olsen of Licenced to Paddle and the Tipper Financial Spirit Cup Champions werrrrrrrrrrre! THE BARDON DREAM TEAM from Bardon Supplies! But believe me, the competition this year was steep, the cup was only awarded after a cheer off had taken place between Bardon Dream Team, GH20 and the Nestle Quik Paddlers. All teams had a ton of spirit and were a joy to watch and race with. A huge thank you to all teams: Academy of Learning Warriors, Bardon Dream Team, Cruisin' Rebels, The Belleville Machine, Cobourg Torpedos, Blazin' Paddles, Down the Drink. GH20,H2OT Boaty, Hydro Therapy, Licenced to Paddle, Nestle Quik Paddlers, Probus Quinte, QHC Life Savers, Rotary Rockets, The Waywards and Wonder Women Too.

HUGE THANKS to all our sponsors: The Belleville Dragon Boat Club, St. John Ambulance, Culligan The Good Water Company, Tipper Financial Services, 91X FM, Wellington and District Lions Boat Club, Cobourg Dragon Boat Club, KFC, Red Ball Radio, Canadian Labour Congress, Swiss Chalet, Eastern Lift Truck, Belleville Recreation Culture & Community Services, Impacto Protective Products, TAS Communications and North China Buffet.

What's on tab for the rest of the month? How about our Campaign Launch this Thursday, September 9th and our Quinte West Chili Luncheon Tuesday, September 14th at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 110 in Trenton.... See you there!!

This is my happy birthday face....

2010-07-07T14:49:00.003-04:00

Do you ever get a little spastic after someone tells you to smile and sticks a camera in your face? ...And you tend to do something like that with your mouth? I sometimes feel like I might look a little too cheesy just smiling so I feel the need to go that extra mile and look a little crazy.

Nevertheless! I had an awesome surprise party thrown for me by Julia's daughter, Jenna : ) she made secret invites, scattered balloons in my office and even organized a little potluck! ... Did I mention she's only 6? She did an AWESOME job and I think I can see what profession she might investigate in her future...

HUGE thanks to my lovely coworkers for the great lunch and bday gifts :), especially Curt for that awesome angel food cake, couldn't ask for better! A big thanks to Jenna of course too!

A Day of Caring....

2010-06-22T09:18:00.006-04:00

Wow, so I have been totally slacking on blogging about all the new cool stuff going on at United Way of Quinte... not because of a lack of motivation but strictly due to the fact that there's SO MUCH going on at United Way!
This past week on June 17th, our community watched over 100 employees from 19 different companies spend the morning with 18 agencies completing projects at 18 agencies throughout Hastings & Prince Edward County.
This hectic day full of hard work, sweat and BBQs is better known as Day of Caring. Participating companies helped garden, clean, build and renovate to help United Way of Quinte's funded agencies complete tasks that they normally do not have the capacity to. I myself ran around like a chicken with their head cut off, picking up items for the BBQ, visiting agencies to take photos and saying a BIG thanks for their efforts in making a difference in each visited agency and our community.
A huge thank you goes out to Hydro One & Cintas for sponsoring the day's event, Reid's Dairy for hosting our kick off, QVSS for hosting our wrap up and P&G for sponsoring the BBQ lunch. Special thanks to all the donors and companies that took part in the day:
- Allstate Insurance
- Royal LePage
- Quinte Access
- Stream Global Services
- GH Manufacturing
- Kellogg's
- O'Flynn Weese
- Future Shop
- No Frills
- Victoria Convenience
- Avaya
- Weston Bakeries
- South East CCAC
- Community Living Prince Edward
- CN
- Airborne Systems
- Home Depot
- Nestle
- Belleville Police Service.

Thank you for a crazy Day of Caring!!

And for all you high school students out there: This Saturday is the Starlight Film Festival, Galaxy Cinemas and United Way of Quinte have banded together again to provide an all night movie marathon for high school students throughout our community. For just $20 enjoy a night out with unlimited pop, popcorn, arcade games and 3 movies.

Films to choose from: New Moon, Sherlock Holmes, 2012 and the Hangover!!

Purchase your tickets at the Guest Services Kiosk in the Quinte Mall or at United Way of Quinte located at 249 William St.

See you there!!

Forever Young

2010-05-26T09:22:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, the Jr. Staff at United Way of Quinte welcomed their fearless leader into the Jr. Staff's exclusive club. Crutching down a red carpet to the throne set up for her, Julia was crowned and made an honourary Jr. Staff Member.

We appreciate all her hard work and dedication to being hip, congrats on the honour ;)!

Today was a day of celebration!

2010-04-15T11:57:00.004-04:00

April 14th was a big day here at United Way of Quinte! It's not every day you get to bond with your fellow staff members over a piece of chocolatey boston cream pie while envying another's summer vacation in the Dominican, but yesterday was that day! We wished Tambra a very happy birthday over afternoon dessert as we prepped her in fine fashions for her upcoming trip... lucky lady.

Along with Tam's birthday the staff were also able to celebrate diversity in our workplace and our community by participating in Day of Pink; the International Day against Bullying, Discrimination & Homophobia. To learn more about day of Pink, please visit www.dayofpink.org.

UWQ Hits the Farm!

2010-04-07T09:19:00.005-04:00

Last week we celebrated Bob's birthday here and one of his fav pass times along with some other staff here is a little thing we like to call Farmville. We appreciate the offer when Connie asks us if we would like to do actual work on her farm, but that's just crazy talk. We Farmvillers like to sit back and relax in the comfort of our own home (sometimes our office if our crops are about to wither)and tend to our gardens with the click of a button as oppose to the strenuous physical labour we would undoubtedly encounter on a real farm.

Now since Farmville is an online game there are of course some who aren't very well versed in all it has to offer. And that's where Bob, Tam and I come into play. You can call us farm experts or at least farm educators and we wish to spread the word of easy farming to all we encounter...

Join us, won't you?

Campaign Basics in Ottawa

2010-03-17T15:48:00.002-04:00

What a whirlwind week! Last week I had the opportunity to learn and laugh with United Way staff from across Canada. I went up the Friday with some friends to catch Joe Rogan and his comedy show (which was amazing by the way), my stomache hurt for hours from laughter. Then I was able to spend the whole next week in our nation's capital.

I wanted to thank Jeff Turner and Bhavana Varma for a great learning experience and environment. Too bad I got a touch of food poisoning on the Wednesday because other than that, it was a fantastic trip filled with fantastic people and I can 't wait to bombard my coworkers here with everything I've learned!

FUN IN THE SUN...in the snow?

2010-03-03T09:56:00.006-05:00

Although life is always a little hectic here at United Way of Quinte, we find it important to ensure that fun is had and morale stays boosted...well, I do at least ; )!

As the winter blues began to fade last week and the beautiful sunshine managed to peak over our snow capped streets, I was delighted to receive a phone call from our lovely E.D. (who is actually celebrating her 10th successful year at United Way of Quinte, congrats!) who thought "hey! it's a B-E-A-U-tiful day, why not get Sam (Connie's daughter) to build a snowman?" I of course leapt at the suggestion and snuck myself into the mix creating one of the most ridiculous snowmen in my life...

I had a great break out in the cool sunshine and i gotta tell ya, after 10 years of not building snowmen, I think I may have to get back into it. Anyways, I should get back to prepping for Campaign Basics in Ottawa next week, I'll try to update if I don't go into information overload!

Foiled again!

2010-02-16T10:14:00.003-05:00

I don't get it. I just don't get it. Every holiday I somehow create a better door than the one before, and every holiday my door is sadly left aside and some other door wins.
This is no longer an issue of sour grapes, this has become a conspiracy! St. Patty's will decide if I ever, participate in a door decorating contest again. My heart just can't take the failure much longer. So Larry, Julia, this means war.

OWEYO-WEYO-WEYO-WEYA...it's the survivor theme...

2010-02-11T14:10:00.004-05:00

Well the Survivor Office Pool has begun. Names have been drawn, torches have been lit and i'm creating a didgeridoo as i type...no big deal. Contestants have been assigned as follows:

Amy - Ben, Cirie
Andie - Danielle, Jessica
Bob - Tyson, Colby
Brenda - Parvati, Amanda
Connie - Rupert & Randy
Jack - J.T., Sandra
Julia - Stephanie, Courtney
Larry - Jerri, Candice
Tambra - Russell, Tom

Let's see how the very first tribal council goes tonight during Survivor Heroes VS Villains!

Weekend in the Croft

2010-02-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

This past weekend was our North Hastings Warehouse Sale. I of course had to suck it up and stand out in the cold for most of the day but time flew by thanks to all the great volunteers who gave me a lot to laugh about and of course Connie's winter get ups always make me chuckle..haha. But a special thanks goes out to all the public works guys, especially Chris Ray who made the whole day go by very smoothly and helped raise $32,000 for United Way of Quinte. A huge thank you goes out to all our sponsors as well: Meyer's Transport, Town of Bancroft, Vito's Pizzeria, Subway, Dixie Lee Chicken & Seafood, T.A.S. Communications, Whitfield Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Culligan The Good water Company, Tim Hortons, No Frills, McDonald's, P&G, Sears and Amer Sports.

A huge congrats goes out to the Haiti Relief Spaghetti dinner that was hosted at the Legion and raised over $13,000. It was a great weekend for great causes. Thank you Bancroft!

A year in numbers...

2010-02-01T09:30:00.003-05:00

Being my first campaign, I can't even believe how much work went into achieving a number like the one United Way did this year, but it was a lot. I realize I haven't that much corporate experience but I have never seen people work this hard in my life.

This year our Acievement Celebration was held at the Empire Theatre and it was a perfect venue to reveal our $1.615 million dollar campaign total. A number we could not have possible reached without all the local organizations who signed up for payroll deductions, sponsored events and donated. On top of that, we can't thank enough all the volunteers who went out to get that corporate support, including all the ECC's, Cabinet members, office and event volunteers... and of course Mark Philbin who was fantastic as the Campaign Chair this year. Thank you again to EVERYONE who had a hand in making this campaign a huge success and congrats to all the staff at United Way for all their hard work :)

Long time coming....

2010-02-01T09:17:00.006-05:00

So it's been forever, and I apologize but January was absolutely hectic! It started out with a whirlwind online sale...

This is Julia and Connie hammering out the details at the warehouse :) It was absolutely crazy... From the moment we opened the sale the e-mails poured in and we were up to our eyeballs in orders by the time it hit noon. Due to the overwhelmingly positive respose, we had to close the sale. SEVEN HUNDRED e-mail orders were received in just three hours and the calls began soon after. But long story short, over $20,000 was raised for our community and it was a learning experience for us all! We hope to pursue this avenue again, perhaps with a few more tweaks :P

A big thank you goes out to Tina's Pizzeria for donating lunch to the volunteers and Tim Hortons for coffee and doughnut donations!!

Holdin' down the fort

2009-12-28T13:19:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-17T09:16:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-12-15T09:12:00.004-05:00

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...

2009-12-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

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!

: (

2009-12-08T09:30:00.000-05:00

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 ;)!

2009-12-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-11-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-20T09:29:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-10-13T14:26:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-10-05T12:38:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-05T12:34:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-05T12:27:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-10-05T09:28:00.001-04:00

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

2009-09-11T08:41:00.000-04:00

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...

2009-07-15T10:34:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-06-29T09:10:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-10T09:12:00.000-04:00

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?!?!

2009-06-01T08:43:00.000-04:00

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...

2009-05-25T14:09:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-07T08:56:00.001-04:00

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

2009-04-30T08:51:00.001-04:00

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...

2009-04-27T13:35:00.000-04:00

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...

2009-04-24T14:33:00.000-04:00

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!