The excitement of the Olympic Games is still fresh. Well, we won the coveted gold medal in men’s hockey and then found out we won the most number of gold medals ever in the history of the Winter Olympic Games! The whole country’s celebrating and it’s only appropriate we invite our guest blogger tonight who just returned from Vancouver to share her thoughts. Take it away, Katherine -

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On my way back from Vancouver, I reflected on my experience at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Giving out of free hot cocoa to visitors, fanatical shopping, collecting of Olympic souvenirs, and overflowing of people filling the streets nightly. It seemed the excitement and ecstacy of these games had completely taken over the city. The sufferings of the Haitians became forgotten, who are still in need of shelter, clean water, and medications. Amidst all of this, it was the story and journey of the first Ghanaian athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics that helped me circle back to our fundraising efforts to help Haiti.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong truly embodies the spirit of the Olympics. Without any support from his government or corporations, he worked as a porter, general labourer, bell boy, and all kinds of odd jobs to make ends meet and pursue his passion. He was able to maintain his focus on skiing and to continue training by tagging along the teams from other countries armed with fancy equipment and endorsements. Kwame kept on competing in as many international skiing events as possible. Along the way, his tenacity and determination earned support of many including his coach, manager, webmaster, and physical therapist, who all have volunteered to help him at no cost. When he and his team qualified for the Olympics but couldn’t afford the accommodation in Vancouver, a family in Vancouver took them in.

Like Kwame’s, raising $5,000 for Haitian relief has been a journey out of ordinary or extraordinary to us. Some of us have stepped out of our comfort zone, and have done a lot of things that have nothing to do with our profession such as cold-calling, copywriting, (professional) blogging, social network marketing, and planning an art show. We have received a lot of help and support in learning the ropes of fundraising campaigns. Mark supported us with website and branding development. Sophie taught us so much about social networking marketing. Rick, Ryan, Kim, Mike, Karen and many others provided valuable strategic advice. Last but not least, our core team of volunteers has been a superb network of support for anything that came our way. Yes, we had our doubts and struggles, and yet, we cheered each other on to continue to march towards our goal.

Just like Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampon, with honest, hard work and support from those involved, we will get there – fundraising $5,000 for the people in Haiti. We remain determined to continue to share the dream of Haitians of rebuilding their country.

We’re so thrilled to end this week on a high note with some wonderful news. After much discussion, deliberation, and debate, we have finalized the date and the venue for TW4H + Auction!

Mark your calendars now for March 12, from 5 to 9pm. The auction will be happening at Quaff Cafe on Queen Street West. Our huge thanks go to Eva, Agatha and Taron at Quaff who have been simply amazing from the day we reached out to them about the auction. Guys, your support has been an inspiration to us. Thank you.

If that isn’t exciting enough for you, we’re happy to let you know that Art Gallery of Ontario is donating free gallery passes! Kudos to AGO for staying connected to the community and supporting our initiative that is featuring local visual artists. Huge thanks to Elliot for making this happen (along with other things )!

Behind the scenes, we have volunteers working tirelessly to get the word out through various media outlets and to get some sponsors on board. These are definitely not easy tasks and require persistence. We don’t take for granted the energy and enthusiasm of the fellow TW4H volunteers.

Heading into the weekend, hope your troubles and stress would wash away with all these happy thoughts. Bonne nuit!

Good evening folks. It’s windy and slippery out there with the thin layer of snow on the ground. Cold and chilly it may be but spirit of Torontonians is certainly not frozen. As I spend some time during the last few days talking to reps from different business trying to get some donations for our auction event, I learned about different things business and corporate owners had already done for Haiti.

Everyone I talked to was curious about what we are doing, took the time to chat with me and told me about fundraisers they had held, donations they had made to various organizations and they wished us luck with our projects. True enough that many of places cannot help us because of budget limitations-having already made donations- and this certainly sends us on a bit of a merry-go-around to try to get the support we need for our event, it also pointed out to me how much people have been touched by the situation in Haiti. It’s hard not to think of how much effort we are making collectively in Toronto alone to help Haiti. There is something very reassuring in knowing how much people care.

We are very close to having the final confirmation and poster for our event. Once we have the poster up, you will be able to print it, and I just wanted to emphasize how important it is that you do…print the poster. TW4H has been very much a “We” group and without everyone’s help, we would not have been able to organize the auction. It is our event. Lets let everyone know about it 

The snow on the ground is magical. This morning as I was rushing to an appointment, I noticed a particular stillness and serenity that the snow layer seemed to have spread over the city. For a split second, it almost felt as thought time had stood still. That is what I mean when I say magical.

In a way, lending a hand to people who need help has the same kind of effect. It has the power to suspend all the rush and the craziness that surrounds us become; even it is for only a split second. When I think of what we are working towards with TW4H, I can’t help but remember this image. Just maybe, we will be able to help create that effect for a person, or two, in Haiti.

Event planning for the auction continue at full speed. During the meeting tonight, service packages were finalised. In addition to our volunteers, members of the  Groovesmith band-who are going to play at the auction- were also present. Meanwhile, Katherine has been helping me with finding some business sponsors that may be willing to donate refreshments for the event; and there is also progress in contacting the press. In short, the amazing energy promised yesterday seemed to be at work today and everything is moving forward. 

Lets keep it up and see what kind of flakes we can create. Good night.

Monday began and routine returned. Morning clean-up rituals, commute, chit-chats around the water cooler (about the hockey game last night), commute (going in the opposite direction), and relaxing at your sanctuary trying to decompress. But for some, routine did not return this Monday. We think about the Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette who suddenly lost her mother on Sunday. We think about those who are worried about paying the bills in the last week of the month. We think about Haitians whose life is yet to ride on that familiar rhythm of their own.

Some of us meet again tomorrow. The agenda items on the table this time are pricing and packaging of the deals. As brilliant minds put their heads together, we will think about how to make the service packages more attractive and how to market them effectively at the auction. We expect to see some amazing creative energy come together and throw sparks everywhere!

Looks like it will be a commute in Winter Wonderland tomorrow here in T dot. Wish you safe journeys wherever you may find yourself throughout the day -

A happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, and happy Year of the Tiger as well. If you were outside today enjoying the relatively mild winter weather, you were probably inundated with the goodwill and warm feelings of these two events. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to wish everyone love and happiness.

TW4H had an unofficial work day – Elliot’s scouted out a location for our next volunteers’ meeting:

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00pm, Art Square Gallery Cafe at 334 Dundas St West (opposite the AGO)

All volunteers are welcome to come for a coffee, maybe a crepe, and a brainstorming session!

As we head into the second month after the earthquake, here’s something to ponder. A recent article at BBC News highlighted the differences between several large earthquake disasters in the last few years: China in 2008, Italy in 2009, Haiti in 2010. The article noted that the human devastation in Haiti is greater than the others. As in any disaster, there are the “technical elements” (the magnitude of the earthquake, how close it is to the earth’s surface, the density of the population in the area) and the “social elements” (the infrastructure, poverty).  We can’t do much about the technical elements, but let’s focus our thoughts this week on what TW4H can do to improve the social elements.

Many of you (we dare say, ALL of you) watched the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games tonight. Wasn’t it amazing to watch dreams come true? Something that started as a dream, far from reality, was unfolding right before our very own eyes – athletes dreaming of competing at the world stage and community members dreaming of hosting the Olympic games at home. Then, an incredible amount of hard work and sweat, a dash of creativity, and human spirit. This night simply brought everyone together. It really resonates with TW4H. We also began as an idea and a dream. We’re working hard to get one step closer to our dream and we will continue to do our best.

Another idea we recently had was organizing an art auction, as we have shared with you here for the last few days. The idea is blooming by the minute, and the auction is very likely to take place in the first weekend of March. Well, yes, the planning has officially begun! After lots of hard work and with a dash of creativity, we will be able to put together a great event. Hope to see all of you there! Bring your friends too. Let’s make this an event that will remembered and help us reach our goal.

Wish you a great and inspiring weekend. A big shout-out to our friends in Vancouver!

How was your day everyone? We had a gorgeous, sunshine-y day here in Toronto. Hope you had a chance to soak up a little bit of that crisp, winter sun.

Today we wanted to ask you if you have joined our Facebook group yet – through our Facebook group page, you can download our logo, catch up on the latest news, see where we were linked/featured, and network with other group members through their FB profiles. Just click the Facebook button on the sidebar on your right, and it will get you there.

We also have a Linked In group as well. Some of you might be familiar with Linked In, which happens to be more professional than FB (we can see some of you nodding in whole-hearted agreement right now). Not only this increases our profile online, but also it helps us get to know other members better and keep things professional as well. So do check it out. Linked In button is right below the Facebook button.

Obviously, these are just some of the ways to spread the word about us. If you know someone who might be looking for just the services we offer, encourage them to contact us.  Not only they will receive the top-notch services, they will help the people in Haiti. Together, we are making an impact on a global scale. You might have heard that Ottawa’s pledge to match dollar for dollar for the donations for Haitian relief ends on Friday. If you have been thinking about working with a TW4H volunteer(s), this makes it all the more crucial to get connected with you this week so that your donation can be doubled!

But we would like to end today’s update with this thought: while recognizing some amazing work that the government has done in Haiti so far, that we won’t be the only group of Canadians who will be making sure that Haiti gets the support it needs even after this Friday.

Millions of Haitians are in urgent need of help.  Do you have projects that require a quick turnaround time (less than a week)? We are a co-operative network looking for more ways to help the people in Haiti.  We want to volunteer our services and time in exchange for your donation to support the disaster relief efforts in Haiti.  We are also looking for more people providing a variety of services through friends, LinkedIn contacts, and university alumni in exchange for their donation.

1. It’s an opportunity to help
2. It’s an opportunity to create a larger donation from Canada
3. It’s an opportunity to network with like-minded individuals

Contact us today!

torontoworksforhaiti [at] gmail [dot] com

http://www.torontoworksforhaiti.com/

Administration Details:

For clients:

1) Please contact us with a specific help that you are looking for.

2) Our volunteer will contact you to confirm availability, scope of work, and the estimated hours of services.  A copy of service agreement will be provided upon approval.

3) Once we receive the signed service agreement, we will provide you the contact information of the volunteer and he/she will contact you.

4) Upon work completion, we ask that you make a donation within 24 hours and send us a copy of the receipt.

5) If receipt not submitted, a reminder will be sent every 2 days.  Clients will be blacklisted after 7 days and published on the website.

For volunteers:

1) Please complete a volunteer form with your name, contact info, your skills set, and your availability.  We ask all our volunteers must be able to commit at least 7 hours per week.

2) We ask our volunteers to submit a time sheet after completion of each project.