Fashionable Success

What a night! Fashionable Encounters was held last night (Sunday Nov 14th) at the Green Street Mansion in Whitby. It was a definite success. I don't know how much money was raised in support of Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health, but I do know that a lot of people had a lot of fun. New friendships were founded, networking was abuzz, and our partners made a great impression on our guests.

First of all, thank you to Xpressions who started the day off by opening up their doors to the Hearts girls. Hair and makeup for all nine of us. My hair looked beautiful plus I scored 30 bobby pins! The Xpressions team then did hair and makeup for all of the models as well. Everyone looked fantastic.

Setting up the Green Street Mansion was next. Tables were set with programs and special "gown shaped" cookies created by Frostings by Judy. Judy's work is always so creative. Next came the swag. Everyone went home with a great goodie bag valued around $50. My particular favorites were the hangers provided by Rick and Nic of Sutton Realty, the candy bracelet from Rebecca of Stella & Dot, and the $20 gift card from Xpressions.

Once we had all of the swag ready, Rebecca brought in her Stella & Dot jewellery pieces to deck out all of the Hearts girls. The jewellery that she brought with her was stunning and every piece added so much to each person's ensemble. I snagged a catalogue and have perused it a number of times today. So many sparkly, pretty things that I want. Rebecca also brought her children's line of jewellery and we were all charmed by the four little darlings who modelled in the first leg of the fashion show.

While we enjoyed a three course meal prepared and served by the GSM staff, the fashion show continued on. I must apologize right now because I found the variety and number of fashionable pieces modelled to be overwhelming. Great job by Christian Pritchard as our celebrity MC for the evening.

Dezire showed off a number of lovely jackets and handbags. Fur is definitely in. Some very tall models modelled beautiful clothes including jeans and casual tops. Our own Kelli was also wearing a lovely top from Dezire for the evening. The shoes from Hanley's store were impressive. There was something for everyone.

Churchill's Crossings had the celebrity models who really hammed it up. The models included two of the Hearts hubbys along with Rocky Varcoe, Tito-Dante Marimpietri, Glen Healy and the rugged looking Glen Uens whom I recognized from his numerous photos in November SNAP. I really enjoyed watching the guys and the clothes were amazing. Jackets, jeans, great Hugo Boss items, very stylish button-down shirts too. Rick Menary you need to do some shopping at Churchill's Crossings. Ken Dunn looked like his normal styling self, but that's because most of the clothes he owns comes from Churchill's. I was hoping to win the gift certificate for Churchill's in the raffle. I could style up my hubby!! Guess I will have to settle for the 10% off in my swag.

Finally, there was Envy with owner Deb and our own Sian modelling. Lovely dresses and jackets, purses and jewellery. The fur on the legs was a hit! The talk around the show was great. Lots of guests wanting to visit Envy to get a better look at what else they have in their store. Envy dropped a discount flyer in everyone's take home swag so have a look in there before you shop.

The staff at GSM were efficient and friendly. Shout out to Jen at the bar! The food was delish. I personally loved the cheesecake. GSM created an apple-tini just for the night and donated part of the sales of this drink back to Ontario Shores. I don't know how sales went but the drink was yummy and the two I had did not last long!

Overall, the venue was stunning, the models were stunning, people were happy and generous and above all, a great cause was supported.

Special thanks to the following:

Tristan and the GSM staff

Christian Pritchard

Raphael and the staff at Xpressions

Rebecca O'Connor, stylist for Stella & Dot

Envy

Dezire

Hanley's

Churchill's Crossing

Frostings by Judy

Ken Dunn, evolvlifeteam

Rick and Nic Menary, Sutton Realty

Amira Messih, photographer

Shane Vieira, videographer

Steve from SNAP Whitby

and everyone who attended the 2nd Fashionable Encounters to support Hearts of Durham and their charity of choice, Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health.

Cheers!

Fashionable Encounters

The Hearts Girls are so excited about the upcoming Fashionable Encounters event on November 14th, 6pm.

This year's fashion show will take place at the new Green Street Mansion. The chef has put together an incredible three course meal for us including Caramel Chicken as the main course. A vegetarian option will be available too.

The bar staff have created a Caramel Apple-tini for sale at the show. For every Caramel Apple-tini sold, GSM will donate $3 to Ontario Shores Foundation.

Of course, there will be the fashion show part as well. Envy and Dezire will be displaying their clothing lines. And, we are looking forward to have men's clothing this year. Churchills-Crossings will be taking part as well. Look for some local male celebrities!

Tickets are $75 and are available from any Hearts of Durham member or by emailing tickets@heartsofdurham.com or info@heartsofdurham.com.

Hope to see you there!

About Ontario Shores

Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health is the Hearts of Durham charity of choice for 2010/2011.

Here is some information about OSF and why we choice them as our charity for this year's events.

1. Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health raises funds in support of Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences and its partners who provide services and support to its clients. High priorities for funding are mental illness awareness and stigma reduction programs, innovative care initiatives, education, research and capital needs.

2. The goal of Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health is to provide the financial resources that will bring important programs to everyone who needs them.

3. Awareness of the devastation that mental illness and addiction causes individuals, their families and society is growing across Canada. But there is still much to be done to:

- reduce the stigma of mental illness and addiction

- open up the way for earlier diagnosis, easier access to treatment and better support for the journey of recovery

The statistics around mental illness and the impact on our community in Durham is surprising. The goal of Hearts of Durham is to support one community initiative each year based on outlining needs within the region. We feel that OSF fits within our goal for this year. It is the vision of Hearts of Durham that by working with and supporting local resources, all of our families will benefit by living, working and playing in a stronger community.

CatchUp

First Hearts meeting of the fall last night. The girls had met a few times over the summer, but with everyone's busy schedules we were never able to have all of us attend. We had a lot of catching up to do and a full agenda. Thanks to Kira for keeping us on task.

So this is how the year is shaping up. We are definitely in for another Big Hearts Raffle or draw as we are calling it this year. Nic has already started the process of getting the license for this. Fashionable Encounters is back this year and better than ever. And of course, preliminary plans for the gala event in April have begun.

We are always looking for new sponsors, new partners and opportunities to build good community relationships. Sian and Kelli are on the job!

Making A Difference

Susan Hay did a wonderful segment on Hearts of Durham. It aired on Wednesday. It was shot at the Feed the Need warehouse in Oshawa. The segment really gives you a good idea of where our money goes and the good that comes out of such generosity and hard work.

Check it out.

http://www.globaltoronto.com/story.html?id=1817381

Making A Difference

Last week Hearts of Durham was part of a taping of Making a Difference with Susan Hay on Global. Although I was unable to be at the taping, it is a very exciting and milestone event for Hearts. I am still waiting to find out when it airs and will link the video to our website if possible.

It is very gratifying to be recognized by a big TV personality. Almost as gratifying as seeing your hard work in action. Anyway, I am familiar with Susan Hay and the fact that she is a News celebrity but I thought I might have a closer look at who she is. This is what the Global website has posted on her bio. She is big hearted and generous and not only understands the philosophy of giving back to the community but she lives by it as well.

Susan works with a variety of charities including Ronald McDonald House, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Reach for the Rainbow and The Heart & Stroke Foundation. She works with World Vision and has visited orphans in Africa and helped to build a school there. She has been the receipient of numerous humanitarian and media awards. She also runs marathons and hosts the Toronto Santa Claus parade, of course.

She is definitely someone to have on your side! Thank you Susan Hay.

VIP

June 9th is the date we have set aside for our VIP event. Mike at Bella Notte has once again generously offered up his restaurant to host this event. Invitations will be going out this week by email.

This event is a quick thank you to our community sponsors and in kind donors. We will also have a chance to introduce next year's charity, Ontario Shores Foundation. Hopefully the yummy foods at Bella Notte will inspire some networking and give everyone a chance to meet others who are interested in making our community a better place.

Friendship weekend

What an amazing planning weekend. Who cares if we didn't plan much, we had a great time.

We did manage to clear up the bare essentials but nothing in comparison to Kira's agenda. So we will be having one more short meeting before our summer hiatus. No biggie!

We learned a lot about each other though. There were a lot of laughs, a few tears and an unbelievable amount of yummy food. I think I had a food hangover on Monday!

On the way home, Dana shared with me her hopes for Hearts of Durham when it first started. She feels overwhelmed at the friendships that have developed and the support systems that we have made for each other. She had really hoped that Hearts of Durham would be able to continue to grow and support the community but never thought about the personal gains that benefit us. To me that's just good karma! You get what you give.

Two Days to go

Two more days until we leave for our planning weekend! So excited. This is Nicole’s first girls weekend so we need to make it pretty memorable. Of course, Sian has already cracked the whip and has set her expectations pretty high. She wants to do an in-depth review of each event and turn the discussion into a map to proceed with next year’s events. She gave us homework! I am pretty sure she is going to be bringing an agenda. The rest of us are banking on food and drink as the agenda for the weekend with some light discussion about time gone by and what lies ahead. I think Sian might be shocked to find out that besides herself and Kelli, the rest of us actually sleep!

Call to Action

It’s hard to believe another year of fundraising has gone by. Five years of hard work and so much to show for it!

This year’s Bee’s Knees Benefit was a great success. $86,409 raised for Feed the Need in Durham. We had to work hard for that number this year. Like every other business and organization, the Hearts girls certainly felt the economic pinch this year. When business is good, our community supporters are more than generous, but when times get tough everyone has to put their priorities in order. We thank this year’s sponsors, donors and guests for contributing to the success of this event. We also recognize that not everyone was able to be a part of this year and there is a need to be frugal in hard times. We hope that we can all move forward into more prosperous times, together as a community.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail discussed the difficulties that non-profits and charities are experiencing this year. The economic downturn has resulted in job loss within these organizations and in some cases, doors closing altogether. Foundations and donors are recognizing that they do not have the bandwidth to keep up with the amount of support that was happening five years ago. For Hearts of Durham this is a call to action. Now, more than ever, our efforts are needed in our community.

So the planning begins…

2010/2011 – Charity of Choice is Ontario Shores.

The Hearts Girls are having our planning weekend in the near future. This is where we hope to hash out the events of the year ahead and look constructively at our past years to see what we can improve upon and what we absolutely loved. It is also a time for us to pat ourselves on the backs and celebrate our great successes. We will definitely be up for a few late nights and a bit of non-prohibition fun! and some hard work, of course.

The Bee's Knees

The Down Low on the Bee’s Knees - The cocktail reception was a great start to the evening. The New Threads gave the event that jazzy 20’s feel that we were looking for. Personally, I thought the Bee’s Knees cocktail was yummy and it was pretty cool drinking out of a teacup. The marketplace was a perfect idea and it gave those who didn’t dress up the opportunity to get into the spirit of the evening. I think the volunteers did a great job at the marketplace and at the reception tables. I had a good time watching the guests show up in costume. Phenomenal job by some! Photos were taken and even though I didn’t get a chance to sit down for a photo by Heather, I did see the final results and they looked fantastic!

Wasn’t the room outstanding? Annie Lane put together a great décor package including the chair covers, centerpieces and pillars at the front of the room. Then there were the swag bags and the purse hooks for all the ladies, that was a bonus. The swag was pretty impressive this year. I’ve already used up a lot of my coupons and the edible stuff that was in there.

Neil Crone was exceptional, as he always is! He’s a pretty funny guy and his two cronies, Dan and Rob, were darn realistic as gangsters. Kudos goes to my hubby, playing the Irish/Scottish cop who stormed in for the raid. That man should be in pictures…don’t you think, Neil?? Oh, and his sidekick was pretty menacing looking too! Good job Rick! The Sutton Big Money Moment was a valuable entertainment piece.

Speaking of entertainment, Matthew always does a bang up job with his DJ service providing us with great dancing tunes to finish off our evening but also those timely zingers that we love! And the sirens worked this year! What about the Big Easy Seven? Dana, you get a pat on the back for that decision. They were incredible and I loved it when they got up and walked through the room playing their instruments. Felt completely interactive and fun! I didn’t get to see much of the Bee’s Knees dancers but from what I did see, they certainly looked like they knew what they were doing. Good job for those who got up to learn a few steps with them. Nothing like being in the spotlight in front of 370 people! Pure bravery!

Dinner was delicious and I didn’t even get to sit and really enjoy it. I heard a number of positive comments about the meal. Someone said they thought the appetizer was the main course it was so filling and another said that it was better than the dinner they had out at a restaurant the previous night. All in all, I think the soup was my favorite part, but I didn’t get to finish because we had moved onto the balloon pop event.

The Hearts girls call the balloon pops their signature event. It is definitely a fun time and a little chaotic. I have seen this type of on-site fundraiser at other events but not one where everyone wins a prize. My hubby got a great prize this year and he didn’t even win the grand prize!

And then there were more prizes! I have to mention the candy girls. They looked authentic and very lovely in their outfits and carrying the trays of candy sticks. Good job ladies. They sold all of the tickets for the evenings raffle which was a great relief to the Hearts girls. You just can’t do everything! The raffle prize was a plasma TV with fixin’s. We also gave out prizes for The Big Hearts raffle from a few weeks earlier. The three top prize winners were given 2 tickets to the benefit and armed with the knowledge that they had won a prize. The $1000 VISA gift card, the plasma TV and sound system, and the trip (Disney for four) were awarded to our lucky VIP guests.

Live Auction was great and I still can’t get over the auction packages that came together. We had a real live auctioneer on hand at one of our guest tables but he suddenly came down with laryngitis, hmmm…anyway his buddy filled in and did a great job. The silent auction also was a hit. A nice variety of items from jewellery to cakes to furniture were sold. The Corona muskoka chair seemed to be THE item of the evening but I had my eye on some other items. Unfortunately I was not successful in winning my coffee maker or the bike, but there’s always next year I guess.

The cheque presentation was met with thunderous applause and I was grateful to present it this year. I didn’t actually get past the 86 thousand point before the applause started but I’m glad that everyone was so proud of the evening. I was slightly nervous about making my minute long speech but even more nervous about swinging that big cheque around and not getting marker on my dress! I think I did a decent job and no marks on the dress. Phew…

Thanks to all!

S.

A New Adventure

I think it's about time that Hearts of Durham have a blog.

Dana and I had both come to the idea/decision that a blog would be a good thing for Hearts around the same time. Unfortunately, the time was fairly close to our upcoming annual benefit and we decided that we would put it off for a bit.

Well it has been three weeks since the Bee's Knees Benefit and it seems like as good a time as any to start moving forward.

With a group of nine I am hoping that everyone will be able to contribute at least once but my sense is that my opinions and stories will be most common. I will do my best to give an overall view of what is happening with the Hearts Girls. I would love to see some feedback and suggestions.

So, here we go...

Sherry