Molson in the Community

Thanks to our latest guest blogger, Jennifer Botterill! Jennifer is a member of Team Canada, Olympic and World Champion…we appreciate her taking the time to update us on her Olympic training.  Cheers, Tonia

It’s been a very motivating week here in Calgary for all of us with the National team! After moving early August to train full time in preparation for Vancouver 2010, our Olympic training is in full swing. We have had a rather demanding few weeks. Hockey Canada has put us through some pretty intense training, but I think we’ve all improved because of it.

After 3 weeks that included fitness testing, on ice practices, off ice training, nutrition and sport psychology meetings, and Olympic meetings we have arrived at the last full week of August! In order to celebrate, it was nice of the sledge hockey team to join us for some training out west. It just so happened there was another small scale event happening… right, the Men’s Olympic team camp!

This week started out pretty tough with our on ice Gatorade sweat testing. The coaches decided this would be a great time to have one of the toughest practices of the year. We could not catch our breath for an hour, but the Gatorade crew was thrilled as they got great sweat samples from us. So glad we could please! Have a look at Tessa Bonhomme and I (below) – if you look closely enough you can see our sweat testing patches in the middle of our foreheads. This was us getting ready for Gatorade pre practice. This is one of our token moves… we refer to this as our ‘split squat cely’.

Hockey Canada organized a couple of special days for all three teams. We had a team photo with our team, the sledge hockey team, and the men’s team taken at the Saddldome on Wednesday. We also had a fun team skate there that day. Our trainer, Doug, took a shot of the group from the back – if you look closely you can see a few of us in front of the men’s team. A great dinner for the Hockey Canada Foundation was later that evening.

Thursday evening was also incredible as we were fortunate enough to attend the Men’s Red/White scrimmage game. We walked into the Saddledome and the atmosphere was amazing!! Everyone dressed in red and white… and I most certainly got chills when our national anthem was sung. It was a thrill to watch so many tremendous hockey players on the ice at the same time. I think we all left feeling more proud than ever to be Canadian, and more motivated than ever to be our best.

There are a few pictures from the game:

An action shot during the game

Billy Bridges (one of Molson’s athletes from the sledge hockey team) and I.

Men’s team saluting the crowd at the end of the exciting game – that concluded with a spectacular shootout.

Needless to say, we are really looking forward to the next few months of training! We are off to Vancouver this week for a pre Olympic tournament… should be a lot of fun as part of our journey!

Will be great to share more experiences along they way,

Jennifer

Une dizaine d’employés du service de Développement de marché a accepté de participer à un programme de bénévolat Molson pour le bénéfice de Sentier Urbain et son dévouement pour l’environnement et l’éducation auprès des jeunes adultes en réinsertion sociale.

Quel plaisir que de réaliser cette mission en compagnie de ces jeunes qui se voient ainsi confiés d’un travail, d’une formation et d’un accompagnement psychosocial, tout en participant à l’amélioration de la qualité de vie de la communauté urbaine locale. Ensemble, nous avons coupé des branches, défriché et nettoyé deux terrains urbains non occupés, afin de les transformer en d’éventuels jardins thématiques. Un accomplissement qui fait chaud au cœur!

Voir les quelques photos de la journée …

Scott Ewart and Peggy Cunningham at the 2008 Queen’s University Corporate Social Responsibility Weekend

I’m thrilled to share that Scott Ewart, the former Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer at Molson, has been appointed Special Advisor and Distinguished Executive in Residence in the School of Business at Dalhousie University.

While Scott will remain in Toronto, he will be participating  in a variety of external relations projects within the province and will be active in the School of Business’ Corporate Residency MBA program (particularly in the Management and Corporate Social Responsibility curriculum, which focuses on senior executives).  Scott was asked last month by Dr. Peggy Cunningham, Director, School of Business Administration, Associate Dean, Faculty of Management and R A Jodrey Chair a Dalhousie University to undertake this special role.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Scott over the last year in my community relations position at Molson. Scott has always shown a great passion for the community and CSR – we’re definitely going to miss him around here.

Wishing you the best with this appointment! Raising a pint to Scott….cheers.

Hi all,

The teams in the photo are the “Barn Painter’s Union- BPU”, the “Zurich Folk”, and “Holes and Poles”.  The Barn Painters Union were all volunteers at the tourny. We had a great day-fighting with the rain- but ended up getting all the games in.  The winners of the tourny were the “Holes and Poles”.
We had an incredible Saturday night Party in the Park featuring the River Junction Band, which attracted at crowd of about 400 (despite the rain- and the concert was partly outdoors!)   We raised about $8000 in total, including Molson’s donation.

We really want to thank you for how incredible everyone at Molson has been- I cannot tell you how grateful we are!

Thanks so much,
Krista

Kristy Pinder (Molson), Jayna Hefford (Team Canada), Pat McEleney (Molson), Heidi Pokorny (Molson) and Jennifer Botterill (Team) Canada

Congrats to Molson employee Pat McEleney and team for raising over $100,000 for the Women’s National Hockey Team at the Going Fore Gold golf tourney last week at the Redtail Golf Club in St. Thomas, ON.  Pat, Molson’s Director of Sponsorships, Events and Promotions, and chairman of the organizing committee along with several people from the business community, sponsors and other corporations have raised $260,000 in three years which will provide each player on the roster with 10K in support.

“Our goal is to provide funding for the team going into the 2010 games to help and provide support for their families to attend the games,” says Pat.

Way to go guys! Cheers.

Jayna Hefford, Cassie Campbell, Mike Butts (Molson), Jennifer Botterill, Paul Quasarano, Bob Nicholson – President of Hockey Canada

Canadian Women’s Hockey team members Jayna Hefford and Jennifer Botterill