A Valentine's Day Celebration

Happy (Early) Valentine's Day!

Because Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday, we took the time out today to make a very special meal for our community!  Our friends at Fitzroy Beef Farmers donated enough delicious beef for us to cook over 400 roast beef meals for lunch!

Our wonderful kitchen staff and volunteers started preparing yesterday.

And today at lunch I came down to the kitchen to help our volunteers carve the roast.

And to top off this fantastic Valentine's Day meal, we handed out special chocolate treats to our clients.

Thank you very much to Fitzroy Beef Farmers, our staff and our volunteers for making this a special day for those in our care.  Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Shepherds of Good Hope!

MaxSys

Today we had a surprise visit from Robert Kearney from MaxSys to spread some holiday cheer and present us with a cheque to help those we serve this holiday season!

Always great to have such thoughtful neighbours pop in!

Socks From Santa

I'd like to introduce you to a very thoughtful kid, Nick from Astolot Private School!

Back in August, his mom, Marjory, contacted us and said that Nick had wanted to start a collection with his schoolmates for Shepherds of Good Hope to collect socks (which is always a huge need here).  His original goal was to collect 100 pairs of socks.  By the time December rolled around they had managed to collect 795 pairs of socks for men, women and children! There are even more pairs coming to them.

Nick stopped by yesterday to deliver all 795 pairs and I presented him with a certificate for his efforts.

Nick's goal for next year as he enters Glebe High School is 1,000 pairs of socks!

What an incredibly thoughtful kid to think of others in need in his community!  We are extremely grateful for people like Nick, his family, their school and anyone that participated in the collection! Thank you!

Export Development Canada

On Friday December 12^th we had a special group of volunteers from EDC. This wonderful volunteers came to help spread the holiday cheer by making a special meal for the women who live in Brigid’s Place, a Shepherds of Good Hope supportive living facility for the most street entrenched and hardest-to-serve women in the city of Ottawa due to addiction issues, mental health and factors relating to past trauma. All of the 11 women who are currently staying at Brigid’s have experienced exceptionally difficult lives and they were so grateful to the volunteers for taking the time to make them such a special meal. 

  

 

The volunteers had a great time volunteering together but the joy they brought to our ladies is what really marks the holiday spirit. 

If you would like to volunteer, or bring in a group to volunteer, please click HERE.

Anchor ClimateCare

A big THANK YOU to Anchor ClimateCare for thinking of those we serve this holiday season!

The gang at Anchor have decided to make their own fun version of the song "Let It Snow" and want to release a video of themselves singing the song, with proceeds going to Shepherds of Good Hope.

That is such a great and fun idea! We love it.  For every donation that Anchor raises for Shepherds of Good Hope, they will match it up to $500, for a total donation of $1000!

Here's their version of the song:

 To make a donation to their cause, please click HERE

If your workplace would like to raise money for those less fortunate, please contact Lauren at lskippen@shepherdsofgoodhope.com or 613-789-8210 and she will be happy to set up a donation page for you.