The upcoming week will be an exciting one at TW4H as we get ready for Friday’s Silent Auction at Cafe Quaff. One way to beat the Monday blues is to tell your friends and colleagues tomorrow about the Silent Auction – it’s something that we’re all looking forward to!

Today was filled with planning meetings. It was a great, productive work day while happy birds and bright sunshine pulled us out of the room to take a walk just before the sun was about to set. We also received door prizes from Rightsleeve.com, Woolfitts.com, and De Serres.

We want to feature Rick and Ryan tonight, two of our service providers whom you will get to meet at the Auction. Rick specializes in customizing marketing programs to your business. He can help your business develop, plan and improve marketing strategies. Rick happens to be a great photographer as well! Ryan will sit down with you and help you choose the clothes that will fit you best, based on your lifestyle, needs and goals. You’ll get a chance to understand what you already own, and go shopping with the style expert.

Here’s a sample of our artworks:

Elliot is an artistic economist, designer, and marketing manager. Let’s put it this way – he tells stories of places with photographs as he can with graphs and numbers. On a professional level, Elliot has done portraits and product photography that have been featured on many websites.

Kilim is a traveler, humanitarian, photographer, and blogger. Her photos and blog transport us to a world that is unknown to some. You can check out some of their work below and at the auction!

Excitement and anticipation is on the rise as we get closer to the auction. As you probably already know from Elliot’s message, during tonight’s more auction planning and discussing took place. There is a new poster, please feel free to distribute it to friends, family and colleagues.

The auction will be a silent one, and what we are working on now is marketing, marketing and more marketing. We are reaching out to various media in addition to our personal contacts. Please feel free to forward any ideas you may have.

Looking over the news pages in the last few days I noticed that there are less and less stories about what is happening in Haiti. Is Haiti already forgotten because other things have happened that demand attention with more urgency? I think we can answer a safe no.

In fact, this may be a case of less news as good news. Haiti might be pulling itself steadily out of the headlines dealing with imminent emergencies. That is certainly a sign of moving forward, slowly but steadily. In good time, we will come across a title highlighting amazing new developments in Haiti since the earthquake. That certainly is something to look forward to. In the mean time, we are doing what we can to help bring those headlines along a little faster.

TW4H has been super busy this week organizing our big event, the TW4H + Auction. Much like the Canadian hockey team, we’re on a roll. Let’s keep the momentum going!

As we reported yesterday, the TW4H + Auction will be at the Quaff Cafe on March 12. Here’s what we need YOUR help with between this weekend and the 12th…Get the word out to as many people/businesses as possible!

See more pictures of Quaff Cafe.

There are several ways to do this:

• We’re going to be distributing posters of our event, so if you can think of a water cooler or bulletin board where our poster could sit, we’ll be more than happy to print off some posters for you to put up.

• Tell your friends/family/colleagues. TW4H has been harnessing the power of new media, and we urge you to do the same. Whether it’s Facebook (visit our Facebook page), Twitter, Google Buzz, or just plain email, now’s the time to send the message to your friends and tell them to drop by the TW4H + Auction after work on March 12.

• Tell strangers/acquaintances about the TW4H + Auction. It’s the best way to meet new friends! Whether you’re at your dentist’s, ordering a venti skinny latte, or at the bar tomorrow watching the gold medal hockey game, tell your dentist/barista/hockey-fan about TW4H + Auction. Let them know it’s going to be fun, coffee-scented and for a good cause.

TW4H’s mandate is to help Haitians in rebuilding Haiti. But tonight we are also thinking of the people in Conception and the surrounding area in central Chile, where an 8.8 earthquake hit the region this morning, affecting 2 million people.

The Olympics dominate the news front. ‘How did this team or that player do’, ‘who won what’ and ‘what is total medal count for each country’ are the type of questions that headlines aim to answer. Amidst all the competition and the sportsmanship floating in the air, we can certainly draw inspiration from the daily proof of what dedication, hard work and passion can help accomplish.

Our team has also been working with definit gold medal spirit on various events relating to the auction. We will have art pieces by four local artists. You have all already seen some of Nuwan’s work, here is a website for you to check out two of the other artists who are also generously donating pieces to our auctions: http://www.garillaarts.com.

I would also like to welcome a new member to our team. Larisa has joined us offering entertainment services for parties. Welcome aboard dancing divas! Its great to have you with us.

That’s all for tonight folks, wish you a great night’s rest. We count on every last bit  of your strenghts in the coming days

While we’re grieving over Canada’s loss to the US in tonight’s hockey game, let’s turn our attention to people who are worrying over something more immediate and vital.

An article in the Toronto Star yesterday really made us think. The question for Haiti now is how to rebuild, and this includes not only the physical infrastructure, but also the political and economic aspects. How will the aid money be spent, short term and long term? Who will administer which parts of the funds? How will the money be spent in a way that will allow self-sufficiency, rather than continued reliance on foreign aid?

Short term, Haiti is in a rush to house its displaced citizens before the rainy season hits. The concern is that the location of many tent cities are situated in places that are at high risk for land slides and flooding. In addition, sanitation and disease in the tent cities is a growing issue. So if anyone asks you this week about why you’re TW4H, now you know what to say.

So we kind of hinted to you yesterday that the TW4H + Auction logo will reflect the four pillars on the top left of our home page, made up of four different colours. We wondered if you knew what it meant. Thoughtful uncles M and E had put something special into it! It’s the colours in the Haitian flag and coat of arms – the story behind them is in our logo too. The nation with vibrant surroundings full of bright coloured fruits, sunlight, and trees, along with history of its people. Did you know inside the flag, looking really closely at the coat of arms, you can find Haiti’s national motto on a white scroll reading L’Union Fait La Force (“Unity Makes Strength”)?

As we wrap up the week, we’re excited to see the auction planning process unfold. We still need your help with getting the word out! Please let us know if you’d like to get on board with blogging about the event. Hope you had a great week everyone. We’ll keep you posted on the details about the auction!

Tonight, we are continuing on what we shared with you yesterday, and to do that, we are taking you back in time, to last night. During the meeting, we were drumming up some ideas as to what the name of the auction will be. An event where there will be beautiful artwork, music, service providers networking, more donations. A great time for everyone – volunteers, artists, musicians, service providers, and passers-by. That’s what we were envisioning. Then all of us realized this was going to be more than an auction. It was an auction with something a little extra and something special. We were thinking of an auction with a special cause, auction that will bring people together. ’Plus’ really appealed to us and we wanted to keep the ‘+’ sign around ‘TW4H’. So there the baby was born and named, Tw4H + Auction. It was also amazing to see how the pillars in four different colours that form part of our logo could make up the plus sign! After coming up with the name of the auction, we left the meeting place feeling so positive and encouraged. Definitely, the momentum is building up.

As you can imagine, it’s full steam ahead for planning the March 6th TW4H + Auction at TW4H headquarters. Lots of tasks need to be done. And  tonight, we’re calling on all bloggers to get the word out! We have our neighbour bloggers south of the border helping us to promote the event. If you have a blog and would like to donate an entry talking about TW4H and TW4H + Auction, please let us know. Your support will mean so much to us and help us get closer to achieving the target donation. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Updates: We just got a confirmation that Scott Garant and Richard Manilla will be donating their photography to our TW4H+ Auction.

We had our second meeting earlier tonight; it was great to see those of who could make it. We had the chance to move forward with some ideas and planning for the event in March now known as TW4H+Auction. Here is a short summary of what we touched on:

• Discussed ideas about reaching out to businesses and other potential buyers
• Looked at few potential venues and alternative days/dates for the event
• Discussed some PR regarding the event including reaching out to media and more e-newsletter features
• Divided up some tasks and came up with many new ones that need to be done
• Discussed having door prizes during the event as well as a catalogue featuring both the art pieces as well as the services our volunteers offer

We are working on finding a band. Please let us know if you know any band we can approach who may be willing to play during the event. We are also going to be looking for corporations that may donate gifts we can offer as door prizes.
We will probably have our third volunteer meeting next week; hopefully to touch base and discuss further ideas. In the mean time, please feel free to email us with any thoughts or suggestions, both on what is highlighted above or any other ideas. Every idea brings us one step closer to making the auction a great success. We are counting on all of you 

Today is our one month anniversary. Thanks everyone for having made our first month a very positive experience. I look very much forward at seeing everyone at our meeting tomorrow where we will be going over the plan for next month. Hope to see you all there.

Stephen Harper has concluded his visit to Haiti after spending some time with various Canadian aid workers and taking some time to highlight how the government’s spending on aircrafts have proven very helpful delivering aid to Haiti. While the Prime Minister did not hold a conference to mention any future projects regarding Haiti, the Globe and Mail article highlights various efforts Canadians are already involved in, including medical care, which are very promising.
According to experts interviewed by Reuters, rebuilding Haiti is going to be one of the most-if not the most- costly investment in rebuilding efforts after a natural disaster in our time. The good news is, investment is being made to improve infrastructure and to build structures that are more resistant to hurricanes and earthquakes. In view of such estimates, many people lose faith and wonder weather or not rebuilding Haiti is going to be even possible. I think it falls on us to do our share in convincing everyone to cast away their doubts.

Elliot is feeling great about our outlook for next month after watching a little hockey today. An 8-0 opening game is quite inspiring. With the spirit of Olympic Games to thrive on, I look forward to TW4H beating this score –or rather its equivalent in helping Haiti- during the coming weeks. Let’s pull together and convince everyone that it is POSSIBLE.