Thompson Nicola Cariboo United Way

Last night joined by our top 20 campaigns, the Silent Choir from McGowan Park Elementary School, press and invited guest we closed our 2009 United Way Campaign by reaching a record breaking

$1, 617, 000.00

Thank you to all our supporters, friends, volunteers and staff.

Thompson Nicola Cariboo United way would like to welcome Canadian Western Bank to Kamloops and their very first United Way campaign. We had a great kick-off breakfast with guest Heidi Starr from ASK Wellness Centre and Helena James from Kamloops RCMP. We really look forward to deepening our relationship with Canadian Western Bank through volunteerism and Days of  Caring.

Daley and Co. kicked off their first employee campaign with a delicious pancake breakfast this morning. The entire staff came together to enjoy a great meal, learn about the United Way and even fit in a quick game before the start of the day. Thank you to Norm for your support and excellent sausages. Stay tuned to see how the week unfolds. Campaign Coordinator, Jill Watson, has lots of fun in store for the staff.

Domtar VP and Mill Manager Eric Ashby and Murray Matheson CEP Local 10B President are joining hands to jointly chair Thompson Nicola Cariboo United Way Campaign at Domtar Kamloops Mill. United Way is very excited as their goal this year is $100,000.  $66,666.67 from the employees and $33,333.33 from Domtar.

Domtar Inc. matches their emplyee contributions at $.50. United Way appreciates the support of both Domtar and CEP

Quilt Poster for more information

Kamloops Dinner and Auction

Thursday October 29th 6:00 pm

Thompson Rivers University

Quilts on display October 22nd to 28th at Aberdeen Mall

Proceeds from the auction are donated to Inspire Health’s Kamloops Integrated Cancer Care Project

Tickets are $50 and available at, Katja’s Quilt Shoppe, Findlay’s, Aberdeen Mall and Interior Savings Insurance (Kamloops)

Sponsored in part  by Scotiabank

Al Hatton President & CEO UWC-C Speaks on New Techology

Almost a decade ago, according to Hatton, the voluntary sector and the federal government signed an historic accord to deepen the relationship between the two. “We need to revisit that accord and live up its principles,” he said. “It has pretty much been shelved.”

In the meantime, the United Way of Canada is taking its own baby steps into Web 2.0. Although he doesn’t see a lot of potential in Twitter at the moment, Hatton said his younger staff in particular is connecting to all the latest media, including Facebook, as a way to reach out to their communities and work with volunteers.

In Toronto, the United Way recently launched GiveADamn.ca, which uses blogs, a Flickr photo stream and user-generated videos to highlight how young volunteers are making a difference in the city.

“The Web site has been created to get individuals to engage with United Way Toronto in a way that they want to be engaged, which is why interaction is emphasized,” he said in his speech. “These channels challenge all of us to rethink what our core business or mission is. We now have to decide how we use these new tools to engage people.”

On the back end, the United Way is dealing with internal IT issues that would be familiar to many small businesses owners. One of them is IT integration – and using Web-based software to ease the pain.

“We would have one system that was Microsoft-oriented, one that was Apple-oriented. They wouldn’t be able to talk to each other very well,” he said. “The Web has really changed that . . . though (online software) may not always work 100 per cent.”

Rob Story, Kamloops ICBC Claim Centre Manager, had his head shaved this afternoon to honor the promise he made to his staff early in the 2008 United Way Campaign. The challenge to staff was to achieve 82% participation in the campaign through payroll deduction. The staff rose to the occassion and ended up with an outstanding 94% participation rate.

A standing ovation to Rob for his sacrifice and a heartfelt thank you to the ICBC crew.

Happy New Year!

Rob and his new hairdresser

The pre-haircut speech

The painful haircut

The reverse mohawk

The new "do"

The new look

Tomorrow Kamloops ICBC Claim Centre Manager, Rob Story, will don a new hairdo all in the name of the United Way Campaign 2008.  The challenge was to get 82% staff participation in payroll deduction pledges and Rob would have his head shaved. They exceeded this goal ending up with 94% participation. Wow!

Stay tuned for photos of the event.

During NRI’s United Way Campaign, they held a “Are You Smarter Than An Executive” game show and had tons of fun. All admission for the game show went to the United Way campaign.

Darin Desrosiers, Peter McKenna and Bruce Churchill representing the Executives

Jamie Meegan our host