Only 3 more sleeps until the Silent Auction on Friday! Now’s the time to check out some of the artwork up for auction at the TW4H website and strategize how you’re going to get the piece that you like the most.

Tonight we feature the artsy language services provided by volunteers Kat Asari and Tomoe:

• Kat Asari has a Masters in French and recently returned to Toronto after studying and teaching in France. With five years of experience tutoring, Kat has taught French and English and can provide instruction entirely in French. – Tomoe has extensive experience in teaching Japanese language courses to university students.
• Tomoe also writes articles in both English and Japanese for major newspapers and academic journals. Whether it’s translation or language instruction, Tomoe can help you with all your Japanese language needs.

We have also updated our featured artwork:

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 

Hello folks,

Hope you all had a great long weekend and are looking forward to our second volunteer meeting coming up this Wednesday- which ‘incidentally’ falls just after day 30. (I think that certainly calls for a little celebration, don’t you? ) As you probably know, we will be talking about the art auction and hopefully divide up all the tasks that need to be done to ensure the event’s success.

We have our very first volunteer outside of Toronto. Not only Nate has offered to help us offering his expert services in writing and communication, he also brings us a more insider perspective on Haiti-having lived in the country for few months. It is great to have you with us Nate.

I like to invite you guys to check out the new positing on our testimonial section. I am sure you will feel very proud of our volunteers after reading the reviews. I also like to thank the clients for taking the time to provide us with their feedback.

The Globe and Mail printed pictures of trucks working to clean and restore Haiti’s streets. A city of 50 000 people, and only two trucks to clean the city; even the thought of the crew getting up to get on with the seemingly hopeless task reveals the spirit driving Haiti’s rebuilding efforts. Hopelessness certainly has no place this equation.

Just as we finish family day here in Toronto, I cannot help but think of the families in Haiti who have so recently lost so much. I just like to end by saying our thoughts are certainly with them today more than ever before.

I’d better make this a quick one folks; otherwise it will become Day 25 bordering on Day 26. We have had very positive feedback concerning the art auction proposal as well as an increasing number of very enthusiastic volunteers willing to help make this event a great success. Katherine and Elliot have already started working hard on this auction and we have people willing to help us out with marketing. And someone is working on find us a band. Very exciting .

Elliot is also working on organizing our second volunteer meetings next week so that we can all share ideas and plan for the big event. It will be amazing to meet everyone we saw last time, as well as everyone who could not make it, in addition to our new volunteers who joined us after our first meeting! The get-together will probably be on Wednesday or Thursday, so mark your agendas and stay tuned for time and location confirmation.

There is also some very exciting news regarding aids being shipped to Haiti (Thank you Rox for sending the story). Canada is to send 1200 units of Earthquake-resistant and Hurricane-resistant shelters to Haiti. These shelters are expected to be used as daycare centres and schools and are a more durable and therefore economic alternative to tents.

And lastly, we have two new services posted on our services page. Rick Shea’s photography bio includes a link to samples of his work. We also have Jana’s web design and web application service bio up and running now. You may notice we need to scroll down more and more to see all the amazing services our volunteers are now offering.

Three days from now, it will be exactly one month since the day Haiti was hit with the devastating earthquake. Yet the number of survivors increases. Yesterday, a survivor was pulled out of the rubble and is under care at the University of Miami field hospital.

It just goes to tell us I guess, that what we take so simply for granted as possible and impossible needs some re-questioning. In a symbolic way, the story of this survival can push aside doubts some may entertain as to what is possible in terms of helping Haiti. There is affirmation of faith in knowing this; which I think in turn helps us stand firm with what we have set us to achieve and contribute. And if you feel you may need a little more reassurance, here are just a couple of amazing things that have happened so far that can challenge your doubts:

• One little boy reportedly raised over $160 000 for UNICEF Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal

• Canadians have over contributed $113 million dollars to Haiti (the figure being till yesterday, I trust I can safely say “over” )

Now for a little bit on our news front:

Elliot has been in touch with Autoshare Marketing and they have agreed to feature us in their e-newsletter which will be distributed to their clients this week.

Katherine has created an ad template we can use to reach out to more people by letting more people know about what our service providers can offer them.

And last but definitely not least, Elliot and Katherine met with Nuwan Foneska and have come up with an ambitious plan for an art auction day where we can auction off not only the paintings Nuwan has donated to us, but other pieces that he and his art community are willing to donate to us. Tentatively, we are talking of setting this up for early in March. More details will be sent out later tonight, but please let us know your thoughts and suggestions for venues, marketing and other related aspects of this event.

And with that, I wish you all a great night.

P.S. Welcome on board, our two new volunteers: Jana and Yuki.

It’s been a big week at Toronto Works For Haiti. First of all, we got an attractive and informative new design for our website. Then, thanks to the Uncles’ hard work with the facelift, we made new groups of friends. We’ve got in touch with other groups who are raising money for Haiti, like HaiHaiTO; One Love for Haiti; and Eat, Drink, and Give. Our Facebook page has added a bunch of new friends and potential volunteers and we’re just getting started on getting our Facebook connections involved. We welcomed new volunteers, Karen, Chris, and Nuwan, who have been busy this week. Thanks for the video shout-out from Chris about TW4H, and for the generous donation of artwork from Fonsekaa Nuwan, which you can check out on “Service Offering” page. We also have bilingual content on “About Us” page thanks to Kat’s translation. Let’s not forget the highlight of the past week: our first Meet-and-Greet event, here are our pictures!

It’s been a big week for Haiti as well. The G7 nations have agreed to cancel Haiti’s debts in the wake of the earthquake, which will be of some help.

However, it’s important to note that the exact amount owed bilaterally to G7 countries is relatively small in comparison to Haiti’s debt owed to other countries and international organizations like the IMF and World Bank. Haiti’s total debt owed is estimated at close to $2 billion. Will the write-off of debts help Haiti in lifting itself out from being one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere? How will this affect the problems of corruption in Haiti? This isn’t the full solution, but it will hopefully be a step forward.

We would like to extend our congratulations to Chantal Labonte from Sudbury, Ontario. She has collected empty bottles and cans to raise funds for Haiti and has raised $250 so far. Good job Chantal!

It was great meeting everyone who could make it last night. I hope you all enjoyed the event as much as I did.

Let me start by welcoming Karen Au, our newest volunteer. Karen’s bringing us her many skills from teaching and writing to vocal performance and event coordinating. Great to have you on board Karen. Looking forward to meeting you at our next “meeting” (that is a little hint for you Elliot, we expect more get-togethers)

As some of you may already know, we have a very generous art donation from Nuwan Foneska, you can now check out the pieces on our service offering page. There have been some rumours about the possibility of an auction we may be able to organize. These paintings would be certainly front and centre. Stay tuned for news of our very own auction in support of Haiti.

The CBC ran a heart breaking story today on the number of people left disabled after the earthquake. Healing Hands for Haiti, an organization specializing in physical rehabilitation and disability treatment and cure, has been working in Haiti for over ten years. They already announced their intention to rebuild their rehab centre and have had a new team join them in the mean time to help out the aid medical personnel with assessing and treating patients.

More on the news front: Operation Stork — Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been working to accelerate the Haitian adoption process. 31 Haitian children are going to land tonight in Ottawa to meet their adoptive families. More adopted children are due to arrive throughout the month.

Since that is such happy news, I feel I should wrap it up right here. Have a good night everyone.

Our cooperative has just turned two weeks old, and we got brand new clothes to celebrate the occasion. As you can see, our team of dedicated designers have unveiled new branding for Toronto Works For Haiti. Huge thanks to our favourite uncles for giving us a new set of clothes! The uncles’ labour of love, the new head banner tells a lot about us – please take a moment to look at it.

We’d like to highlight a book that Elliot has been reading to help him lead Toronto Works For Haiti. In “Change by Design”, Tim Brown, CEO and President of IDEO, shares a few tips on how to curate the emotional ride of nurturing new projects based on his experience with his own design firm. Have a look at the graph below. Certainly during the first week of TW4H, we were charged with mountain-high hope. Then, came the second week where we were in the negative yet insightful stage.

© 2009 Tim Brown, http://www.ideo.com/cbd

It’s important that we go on to the next, confidence stage and do not become stagnant. To do this, we should turn to the insights that have been picked up along the way, and improve our processes so as to better serve our clients and manage service offers. We’re doing this to ultimately help the people in Haiti to rebuild their community.

We’d also like to build our own community here in Toronto. We believe that together with other local volunteer groups, we can offer much better assistance to the people in Haiti. HaiHaiTO is holding their fundraising event on February 11, and Toronto Help Haiti!’s One Love For Haiti is happening on February 6. These are just some of the events that will send out messages of encouragement to those who survived the ordeal. Thinking about what we have been and will be doing as a community here in Toronto makes us feel hopeful.

More good news on the business front to share with you. We were approached by a local artist who would like to donate his artwork for Toronto Works For Haiti. We will post the images of his artwork on our site later this week for all to see. And of course, we are pleased with the RSVPs for tomorrow’s event. It will be an amazing gathering for sure. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

It’s cold in Toronto but it’s hovering around 30C in Port-au-Prince, and sunny. What this means is that the weather’s right for getting work done, both here and in Haiti. Looking at the week ahead, we have our work cut out for us.

Today, we have Francois Phaboriboun on board, offering accounting and bookkeeping services. We have also updated Kim and Jennifer’s Personal Coaching Services and a local art director on our service offering page. So let’s make our focus for this upcoming week the matching of volunteers to volunteer seekers.  We are definitely continuing to encourage our friends and co-workers to check out the blog and sign up. But our special task this week is to see how many links we can make between the services provided and services required. If you spot a potential connection, please email us and let us know!

It’s been two weeks since the earthquake, and instead of just reporting about what’s happening in Haiti now, a lot of the weekend newspapers have asked reporters and commentators to make their remarks and suggestions for what they see as things that need to be done to help Haitians deal not only with the immediate aftermath, but also to help build a better and stronger Haiti.