Molson in the Community

March 11th marked one of Frontier College’s most recognizable fundraising events in Toronto – the Corporate SCRABBLE Challenge.  This was the literacy-focused organization’s fifth annual event which brings Toronto’s Bay street wordsmiths together for a one night, no spellcheck competition that continually raises tons of funding for improving literacy rates across Canada.

Molson has been a sponsor of this event for a few years, providing some hospitality for the dictionary-deprived participants.  I was able to stop in to watch some of the fun and was blown away by the evening of fun and inspiring stories.

Did you know that 40 per cent of Canadian adults struggle with low literacy?  This is also Frontier College’s 110th year of helping Canadians strengthen their literacy skills.

How are your scrabble skills?  I could use some practice – I think spellcheck and auto-correct may be my downfall…

Double word points if you leave a comment

Word-out, @toniahammer

The Toronto and Queen’s NMP students, Mark Dailey, Molson Mentors, Community Partners and a few others!

The second year of the National Mentoring Program (NMP) has started with a group of new, excited young students from across Canada.  Amir was out east last week at DalHousie to meet with the students, their Molson mentees and the charities.  I joined the U of T and Queen’s Uni. NMP’ers at the Board of Trade last Friday for a very delicious lunch (thank you for the veggie options Mary!) and a guest appearance from Mark Dailey, Citytv News Anchor.

Scott: Ready to rock – about to into Mark

Molson’s Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer, Scott Ewart addressed the students and introduced Mark who gave the students a brief overview of his philanthropic past, present and future – truly inspiring.  His work in the community stretches over years, working with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Salvation Army, a spokesperson for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, and many more – a great inspiration to the students (and the rest of us!) who are about to embark on a community development and leadership journey.

Thank you to Mark for taking the time in his busy schedule to join Molson and the NMP.

Signing off…. @toniahammer, #theNMP

Photo L-R: JoAnne Akerboom, Dalhousie University; David Wheeler, Dalhousie University; Peggy Cunningham, Dalhousie University; Mary Donohue, DBTC Consulting; Amir Remtulla, Molson; Anna Cranston, Dalhousie University; Kelly Power, Feed Nova Scotia; Jana Collicutt, Dalhousie Unversity Mentee; Lynn Cochran, Dalhousie University; Mickey MacDonald, Micco Companies; Dianne Swinemar, Feed Nova Scotia; Amy Harding, Dalhousie Unversity Mentee; Duane Irvine, Molson Mentor; Evan Price, Dalhousie Unversity Mentee; John MacDonald, Dalhousie Unversity; John Francis, Molson Mentor; Barbara Warren

One of the new University’s to join the Molson National Mentor program is Dalhousie, I attended their first luncheon last week.  What a way to start off the program, Mickey MacDonald, entrepreneur and philanthropist was on hand to speak to the Mentors, Mentees, staff and some of the charities involved including Feed Nova Scotia and the Turo Vounteer Fire Department.  Mickey has done it all and then some, his life embodies a movie in waiting. He spoke about his life on the streets – to boxing, being a firefighter, selling lobsters in the back of a car, selling phones in a car lot in Bedford which led him to purchase DownEast Cellular. The constant theme of his speech was giving back to the community– one of the many projects he is working on in the community is the Palooka Boxing Club, a not for profit organization helping troubled youth not only in their boxing skills but thier life skills as well.  The one question I had for Mickey is if he slept and he replied “Very well”.  One person can make a difference…

The 3rd Annual Molson/Montreal Alouettes blood clinic (in collaboration with Hema Quebec) is coming up and will be open to the public on April 23rd.  Donors can come to the John Molson room at the Montreal brewery, meet 10 Montreal Alouettes and Touche (the mascot) and help save lives! (More details below – thank you to Simonne Bienvenue for the translated info!)

En collaboration avec Héma Québec, Molson et les Alouettes de Montréal tiendront leur 3e collecte de sang le jeudi 23 avril 2009 à la salle John-Molson à Montréal. Cette collecte de sang est ouverte au grand public. Cette activité entrera dans le Programme de bénévolat Molson, car une vingtaine d’employés Molson assisteront l’équipe de Héma Québec.  Une invitation est lancée à tous afin de venir faire un don de sang, un seul don pouvant sauver jusqu’à quatre vies. N’hésitez pas à transmettre cette invitation à votre famille et vos amis. Notre porte-parole, Monique Dépatie, une dizaine de joueurs des Alouettes, des cheerleaders et la mascotte Touché seront sur place pour vous accueillir.

Plus de nouvelles à venir.

Comité organisateur

Some video from last year’s drive:

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The Power to Make a Difference – Generate Millions of Liters of Water Savings at Toronto Brewery

(I am re-posting a note that reported on this terrific accomplishment…cheers…@MolsonFerg)

The boiler room is the power house of the Toronto brewery. It supplies power, steam, compressed air, water, C02 and refrigeration throughout the entire plant in order to fuel production. One of the many complex systems in the boiler room is the Nexguard control system, which continually monitors the chemical level in the boiler. In the course of operations, the Nexguard system pumps out water at the rate of 16.3 litres per minute. And until a few months ago, all that water was going straight down the drain.

That’s when boiler team members Doug Gow and D.S. Tran put their heads together and came up with a water saving solution. Why not reroute the Nexguard waste water to help supply the sump water cooling system? They presented their idea to Doug Dittburner, Toronto Brewery Chief Engineer, and after checking that the chemical levels could have no harmful effect—he gave the go ahead. A few days later, the fix was in place.

The net result: Savings of 8,569,664 liters of water per year are expected to be recovered from Nexguard control system, accounting for yearly cost savings of approximately $14,250. In appreciation for their efforts, Gow and Tran each received a big Molson dufflebag—representing a dufflebag full of thanks from the company. Doug says, “It’s clear that the Power to Make a Difference campaign is having a REAL effect on the way we operate. We’re proud that employees like Doug and DS are being proactive and thinking of ways to save us energy. Even better, this was accomplished with minimal effort, cost and time, using in-house resources. Way to go, guys!”