By: Wendy Dyke

 Left to right: Nina, Wendy, Matt, Sam, Sylvie, Brad, and Liliana

The Gala to celebrate the great success of the 2016 United Way Toronto and York Region campaign was held this year at the Allstream Centre on February 7, 2017. The celebration brought together heroes from all sectors that have played a role in raising $102 million dollars for United Way Toronto/York Region.

The Gala was a celebration of the many, many campaigns that were undertaken by students, corporations, labour unions, employees in the public sector, and agencies such as ours. The results really spoke to me about the people who live and work in the Toronto region and the big hearts our community members must have to dig deep to support the work of the United Way. This is particularly true when so many are finding it a struggle to pay the monthly bills. I know many of the contributors to our own United Way campaign had to dig deep to sponsor a CN Tower climber, buy Chase the Ace tickets, and make pledges. There were other contributions through a few events across the regions too that helped boost our total and we thank those who were involved. Our campaign raised $37,000.00, thanks to all our contributors, the tireless work of our committee members and our leadership from campaign chair, Yulia Prodova.

As chair for our 2017 campaign, I look forward to working with our United Way committee and hope for another successful campaign.

Read the full edition of Connections Newsletter March 2017