The Results Staff took at break from their hard work in the world of social justice to dress up in style for our annual Christmas pot-luck luncheon. They definitely set the mood for a fun event with their Santa and reindeer hats! The food offerings were delicious and the voices in good form for our carolling after lunch session too. Many thanks to Jennifer Noxon at People,Words & Change for her guitar skills during the sing-song.
DECEMBER 8, 2009 - Celebration of People Awards - Heartwood House 2009 recipient for its work creating volunteer opportunities
Heartwood House is a community of 16 non-profit organizations working better together under one roof at 153 Chapel Street in Ottawa. Heartwood House is also home to a remarkable partnership initiative whereby the participants of member organizations benefit from a unique arrangement with the City of Ottawa for the management of the OC Transpo Lost & Found.
Heartwood House has created a very effective employment training and leadership program whereby people with disabilities, literacy learners, and others have the opportunity to develop customer service skills, computer abilities, teamwork, and leadership skills. Many have been supported to transition from the Lost & Found initiative to competitive workplaces throughout the Ottawa community.
Heartwood House was one of 41 nominees for one of thirteen Celebration of People awards given out on December 3. This annual event commemorates the United Nations Day of Persons with Disabilities. The event has strong support from a variety of private, public, and charitable sector partners and attracted an audience of close to 500 people.
There were 3 finalists in the category of The Volunteer Opportunities Award which recognizes an organization that has shown leadership in creating opportunities for persons with disabilities to engage in meaningful volunteer opportunities.
All of the nominees and finalists were deserving of recognition, but it is with great delight that we announce Heartwood House as the winner!
In addition, The Volunteer Award recognizes a volunteer whose contributions have had a positive impact on the lives of persons with disabilities. Darcy Quartermaine, a volunteer with Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre and Heartwood House, was the winner for 2009!
SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 - Deloitte volunteers are the best!
For the past three years Deloitte volunteers have given the gift of their time to do everything from painting walls to reconstructing space to re-orgainzing storage areas. No job is too big for these fabulous volunteers! We are very grateful for their kindness and to this year's work crew we express our gratitude for all they have done to make Heartwood fresh and welcoming for all who enter our doors!
NOVEMBER 2, 2009 - October 31st Sale was a great success
A total of $4,151 was raised at the Unclaimed Items Sales held on Saturday October 31st!! That's $581 greater than our previous sales.
It was a madhouse in the electronics/jewellry room, with many items up for silent auction including a laptop, watches and several digital cameras. Our experienced volunteers Bill, Susan, Wendy, Carole and Jan managed the madness like pros and their efforts were significant in boosting our final results.
Many thanks to the following volunteers for making the sale such a huge success:
ADAO - Julia and Lotte ALSO - Bill, Susan, Wendy APHASIA - Joanne CCM - Peter (and thanks for the tables too!) CLC - Becky, Ryan, Tamadir, Nandine ELTOC - Jane, John and Joyce HALIFAX - Fraser and Karyn HOPEWELL - Eleanor, Nancy and Joanne LTCRC - Chantal and Margaret LiveWorkPlay - Grace, Sarah, Kim, Jennifer, Heather and Melissa OVWSG - Elizabeth PWC - Dee, Margaret RESULTS - Sabina HEARTWOOD - Moe, Beth, Lisa, Nancy, Michelle, Brooke, Mike, Salem, Lucas, Amanda, Angela, Casey, Jan, Sr. Huguette. And Carole our new volunteer who just retired from OC Transpo.
Special thanks to Jeremy McConnell at the Bank of America for donating new sweaters for the sale. And to Mike, Chantal, Peter, Beth and Lisa for their work with cleanup after the event. And many thanks Dee, Margaret and Salem for counting the money and to Chris for the bottled water for the crew!
And congratulations to Amanda, Sabina, Jane and John for dressing up for the special Halloween event. Amanda's cow costume was awesome. They won some tasty treats for their efforts. And Sabina you were at fantastic directing traffic to the upper level!
Way to go everyone. Thank you for the gift of your time.
OCTOBER 30, 2009 - Heartwood House at the Creative Spaces Conference
Maureen Moloughney Executive Director of Heartwood House and Leanne Picot Executive Director of the South Simcoe Community Information Centre share ideas at the Collaboration Marketplace at the Creative Spaces Conference on October 30th, at the Mars Centre in Toronto. Heartwood House was very pleased to be invited by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to participate in the Conference.
OCTOBER 5, 2009 - Lost and found, the gracious and greedy
In Transit by Steve Collins METRO OTTAWA October 05, 2009
I wasn’t confident there was much we could do for Brian Bertrand, whose nephew, Al Lapensee, faxed Metro for help last week.
Wednesday before last, Bertrand, who is visiting from Vancouver, took the bus in from the airport, and hopped off somewhere between Billings Bridge and Hurdman.
After he got on the next bus, he realized he’d forgotten his camera bag. His cameras could have been replaced, but they contained a summer’s worth of irreplaceable pictures of Bertrand’s grandchildren and other family.
He’s hardly alone. Every year, we lose something like 30,000 items on OC Transpo. They end up in the office of Maureen Moloughney, executive director of Heartwood House.
Since 2001, the local charity group has run OC Transpo’s lost and found service. The program is staffed by volunteers, many of whom are in programs for the developmentally disabled, literacy or ESL.
And they work hard to process 200 lost items a day, including four to eight wallets, an average of eight cellphones, and countless umbrellas, hats and gloves.
Perhaps 35 per cent of these items are returned to their owners, although your odds are boosted by the Happy Returns program — which for $10 gets you a unique ID number and some wallet cards and identification stickers for your valuables, advising anyone who finds them to turn them in to Transpo. (Of course, this is more likely the sort of precaution you wish you had taken after your stuff has already gone missing.)
Twice a year, Heartwood House holds a sale of all the unclaimed items, offering up big bargains on electronics, jewellery, clothing and more.
The next is Oct. 31, from 12 to 2 p.m., at 153 Chapel St.
The proceeds, usually $3,000-$3,500, go towards Heartwood House’s operating costs.
“When you receive 30,000 items a year I think what it really speaks to is how many kind people there are in this city,” Moloughney told me. “When you realize that you lost your iPod that you just purchased for several hundred dollars, and someone’s just turned it in for you so you can get it back.”
Sadly, this altruism is not part of Brian Bertrand’s story. His cameras never turned up at OC Transpo’s lost and found, but he placed an online ad, and the person who found them got in touch.
The Mediocre Samaritan has emailed an offer to return the memory cards containing the treasured pictures, but intends to keep the cameras. Pure class.
JUNE 25, 2009 - Take it Back launches 2009 directory at Heartwood House!
The City of Ottawa's Take it Back Program was started in 1997 to encourage local businesses to take back many household items that they sell and to ensure that items are reused, recycled or disposed of properly. Heartwood House has been a partner of Take it Back since 2006 in the operation of its Everybody Wins computer and television recycling program. Heartwood House in partnership with RD Long Computers is now an authorized collector of electronic waste on behalf of the Ontario Electronics Stewardship Program (OES), a non-profit industry organization that manages e-waste collection in Ontario. Heartwood has collected over 200,000 pounds of electronics since 2006. Our goal is to collect one million pounds of waste electronics by 2012. Heartwood is thrilled to have been recognized by the City of Ottawa and OES for its forsight to take on the environmental responsibility of assisting with the safe disposal of electronic waste.
Maureen Moloughney, Executive Director of Heartwood House joins Councillor Peggy Feltmate, Joe Hall, the Director of Implementation Services from OES and Councillor George Bedard in the cutting of the ribbon to launch the 2009 Take It Back Directory.
JUNE 24, 2009 - Garden Barbeque
The staff and students of the Alternative Learning Styles and Outlooks (ALSO) program enjoy a barbeque in the Mike Ward Memorial Garden. The weather was perfect with over 50 people enjoying the tasty hotdogs, hamburgs and salads over the lunch hour.
JUNE 17, 2009 - Community Barbeque
Timothy, Bob and the staff at Capital City Mission hosted the first of three community summer barbeques in the Mike Ward Memorial Garden on Wednesday June 17th. Over the 200 people from the local community enjoyed the free hotdogs and hamburgers that were provided by CCM. Many thanks for all you do for Heartwood and the local community CCM!
MAY 2, 2009 - OC TRANSPO UNCLAIMED ITEMS SALE
The OC Transpo Unclaimed Items Sale was a great success with $3,136.11 raised despite the 2.5 month bus strike that resulted in approximately 1,000 less items for sale. It's hard to believe that selling for 25 cents to $5, with the vast majority sold at the lower end of the scale could raise that money!
Many thanks to:
Beth and Carole (HH) for all their efforts the day before and the day of the sale. Chris (PWC) for brining water for the workers and for her efforts with the early morning setup crew. Dennis (ALSO) for setup up,and his work in the insane electronics/jewellry room. Lisa, Michelle, Joshua, Tamara and Celina (HH) for their help with setup and their work in the sale of new items in the gallery. Chantal (LTCRC), Mike (HH) and Kae (PWC) for surviving the mob at the umbrella stand! And to Kae for counting up the loot at the end of the sale. Darlene (Results) our rookie salesperson who I think sold every backback and bag at her stand. Hmmm...I think you outsold Karyn and Margaret. A little competition goes along way. Joanne and Sibly (Aphasia) and Steve (HH) for your passion for books that resulted in a constant mob around the book stand and excellent results. Margaret (LTCRC) and Karyn (Halifax) the dynamic duo who sold at least 80% of the adult clothing. Way to go ladies! Misty (Hopewell) for your great work in selling the new items in the gallery and Dee (PWC) for your efforts with the setup crew, selling new stuff and for your work on the counting the loot team at the end of the event. Vaishali, Katherine, Sonja and Grayon (Eqo E.) for your efforts to sell almost every cup and lunch kit at your station! Bill, Susan, Dennis and Sandra (ALSO) and Jan (HH) for surviving and thriving in the electronics room. You do such an awesome job with the silent auction as the determined folk hover around the auction sheets waiting to beat out each other. Way to go! Julia, Lotte and Vorteg (ADAO) for their work selling the sports equipment, gloves, sunglasses etc. Lotte and Vorteg are Julia's kids and their are also fantastic sales people! Ann (OVWSG), Steve and Ken (ELTOC), Amy, Kathy and Tamadir (CLC) and Salem (HH) for your work selling winterwear and other miscellaneous stuff. You were surrounded by leather glove lovers the entire sale and survived! Grace, Daniel, Caroline, Jennifer, Laura, Melissa, Cooper and Sarah (LiveWorkPlay) for the excellent work you did with the sale of miscellaneous stuff. Angela and Amanda (LiveWorkPlay) for their work at the front desk. Huge thanks to Dennis (ALSO), Mike, Lisa and Joshua (HH) for their efforts in take down at the end of the sale.
Many thanks to Grace (LiveWorkPlay) for her excellent work with the inventory team who are all members of LiveWorkPlay and Carole (HH) and Paul (LiveWorkPlay) for their efforts to prepare the items for the sale. This is a huge commitment and we are very grateful to you.
Wonderful results are always the result of fantastic people who make it happen. The sale was great fun because of all of you. Many thanks!
APRIL 23, 2009 - ROGERS DAYTIME VISITS HEARTWOOD HOUSE
Jamie Ray Gomes, the on location reporter from Daytime, was in the house on April 23rd to shoot two live segments focused on Heartwood life and the importance of volunteers, including first floor activity where ELTOC was in the midst of a volunteer recognition party!
The OC Transpo Lost and Found Program and PWC were featured in the second segment. These interesting news items were featured at 11am, 3pm, 5pm and 11pm on April 23rd and on April 24th at 5:00am and 8:00am. Thank you Jamie and all the staff at Rogers Daytime!
APRIL 23, 2009 - Heartwood Better Together Community Celebration Banquet
The original motivations for hosting an annual banquet were simple: recognize our volunteers, recognize our partners, and bring everyone together for a shared experience. The central thought was that "It is difficult to be better together if we don't know who we are." While our varoius lunch time meetings, potlucks, and barbecues are useful for both information and fun, they are also very limited in that they include only a very small proportion of those who benefit from and contribute to Heartwood House.
The "Better Together" Banquet, held on Thursday April 23rd exceeded all of these expectations. There has been an outpouring of positive feedback. Many organizations invited diverse representation, and overheard countless times were phrases that started with "Wow, I never knew..." and this mostly had to do with developing an understanding of the wonderfully complex interconnectivity of relationships in the House.
People seemed moved the most by the way the volunteer team supported and celebrated each other. Despite many different backgrounds, abilities, and needs, a level of mutual respect has developed that was clearly in evidence even to those who were relative strangers to Heartwood House.
Derick Fage and TL Rader from Rogers TV did a wonderful job as hosts. Maureen refined the agenda so well that it was hard to believe this was an inaugural event. In fact, the evening concluded about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We were all well fed if not overfed, and the St. Anthony staff were courteous and efficient.
Gillian Gailey (centre) our 2009 Heart of the House Award winner with Jackie Swedlove, heartwood board member and Warren Murphy, former maintenance staff person. Congratulations Gillian!
Lucas Rodgers, our 2009 Mike Ward Memorial Award winner with his proud mom! Congratulations Lucas.
Moe (HH Executive Director) wtih Ann from the Ottawa Valley Weavers. Ready for the grand event!
Our 2009 Heartwood Board of Directors (from left to right) Allison Moores, Fran Childs, Marilyn Evans, Jackie Swelove and our chair Keenan Wellar. Better Together thanks to your dedicated efforts!
MARCH 5, 2009
Barbara McInnes the Executive Director and Catherine Dubois Director of Grants and Community Initiatives of the Community Foundation of Ottawa attended our Member's meeting to listen and share ideas regarding possible cost sharing options for our community. Barbara and Catherine also discussed future possibilities for the Foundation to support charitable organizations. Their ideas were very helpful and in the coming months we will investigate various expenditures that could be shared by our community to save operating costs.
