Molson in the Community

Last Friday evening (January 25th), I joined Molson and many student volunteers from Meal Exchange at Black Betty in downtown Toronto to celebrate Molson’s partnership with the unique charity - Meal Exchange is a national student-founded, youth-driven, registered charity organized to address local hunger by mobilizing the talent and passion of students.

Judy McClelland, Molson’s Donations Officer, presented a $25,000 donation to Andrew Tam, Meal Exchange’s Chairman of the Board and Dave Kranenburg, Executive Director of Meal Exchange. Molson’s donation helped Meal Exchange reach a huge milestone - it has now raised $2 million to support community-based, hunger-relief programs across Canada.

Black Betty was packed with grateful student volunteers from Meal Exchange who enjoyed complimentary drinks, snacks and giveaways provided by Molson.

Congrats to the students at Meal Exchange for their hard work and dedication!

Molson…..Proud to play our part.

Hats off to Ted Clarke, President and CEO at The Beer Store in Ontario for his successful completion of his half marathon at the PF Chang Rock and Roll Marathon and half marathon in Arizona. Molson was proud to support Ted in his efforts through the Molson Donations Fund. Ted raised $6000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. This cause is the selected charity of The Beer Stores and their unions across Ontario. Way to go Ted !

You will notice that Tonia will be blogging for Molson in the coming days. She joins us from Humber College and is an intern for the next four months. Tonia will be covering a number of our community activities and is off to “Meal Exchange“ tonight at Black Betty’s to cover this new Molson partner in the community.  Welcome Tonia and stay tuned.

Molson participated in the Queen’s University Business Environment Today Conference (QBET) in November of 2007. Stephanie Daley, Brand Assistant at that time - led the charge for Molson in facilitating the challenge between attending post secondary student teams.

The challenge was intended to generate ideas that would help the H’art School of Smiles with their fundraising efforts and marketing(H’art School of Smiles is a non profit dedicated to helping adults with intellectual dissabilities through education and creative expression).

After a decade of operating in downtown Kingston, the charity was presented with a challenge – finding a new home. On behalf of the winners of the Queen’s Charity Challenge, Molson donated $1,000 to the organization. These funds helped the H’art school launch an appropriately themed book “Newton Finds a Home.” The book was written and illustrated by H’art’s students and was a tremendous success. To the relief of the school’s staff and students the book’s sales enabled the charity to secure and set up their new Kingston home.

Molson…Proud to Play our Part.

Molson employees put together large hampers with an abundance of useful items – including those on each family’s “needs” list, and also items on their “wish list” too. On December 19th, employees from Calgary delivered the hampers on December 19th to the two families, both single mothers with children.The Inn from the Cold provides temporary emergency shelter for homeless families, but there is much more involved to help them get back on their feet. They partner with many other community agencies, and offer the programs and services these families need to rebuild their lives and create a hopeful future. The Inn will work with families for up to two years to help them break the cycle of homelessness.

The two adopted families have made great strides to get back on their feet, says Tracy Kapteyn, Group Manager, Field Marketing and Events, Calgary, who has been organizing Molson’s employee involvement for several years. The oldest child of one family is currently in University taking Journalism. She was able to do this by getting high grades even though she was homeless and ended up receiving a scholarship. She would like to help others understand homelessness in the future. The mother of the second family speaks French and is learning to become more fluent in English. She is attending Bow Valley College and her children are attending school.

Congratulations Tracy for taking the lead and reaching out to those in need in the Calgary community!