Our internal United Way champions have kicked off another year of support for this oustanding charitable cause - United Way. Molson reaches out to our employees and engages them in activities coast to coast in Canada, at our breweries, offices and in the work place. The other really compelling factor is that leaders within our business, rather than senior managers, embrace the opportunity and take this to the general employee population.
This year at 33 Carlingview Drive in Toronto, the employees will be engaged in volunteering in a special series of “Days of Caring”. Our employees recognize what a privelege and honour it is to contribute to the communities in which we live, work and play. Molson employees are “Proud to Play our Part”.
The days of caring initiatives this year include the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, where we will work with youth in educating them about the benefit of trees in urban environments and the proper tree care in school grounds and parks. At the YMCA Cedar Glen Camp we will help with some general maintenance of the facility. Employees will also engage at Food Share to help sort and pack fresh food in support of the field to table initiative conducted by Food Share.
Congratulations and a toast to our employees leading this national effort in support of United Way and the thousands of agencies that will be positively affected by this work. Cheers !
What is your favourite United Way agency and how have you helped make a difference ?
Thanksgiving weekend marked the beginning of the 2008 Oktoberfest festival in Kitchener-Waterloo, the nine day, largest Bavarian festival in North America. This year is the 40th anniversary of Oktoberfest, and Molson is one of the sponsors.
I’m from Waterloo, so Oktoberfesting is something I’ve enjoyed for many years. This weekend I was super busy with family activities and didn’t make it to some of the great night events (next weekend, I’ll be out!). The Molson Oktoberfest crew was at the Concordia Club on Saturday night — Anyone go? Would love to hear about it and see photos. Concordia is one of my favourite venues!
On Thanksgiving Monday, I went to the Oktoberfest parade — best one to date! Marching bands, great floats, and dancers…more pics.
At the end of the parade, volunteers collected donations and non-perishable food items for the Onkel Hans Food Drive, supporting the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. Molson kicked off the annual Food Drive this year at Zhers last Saturday. Nineteen volunteers (employees, friends and family of Molson), spent a full day collecting food and cash donations and raising awareness about the most needed items. Molson raised $6,186.87 total CASH and 2,854.6 lbs of FOOD……which equals over 300+ filled beer cases!!!
Where were you Oktoberfesting? Planning to go this weekend? Hope to see you there!
I was driving into work on Thursday morning and as I approached the brewery at the 401 exit to Carlingview Drive low and behold…the Toronto Maple Leafs flag was flying high on the Molson flag pole. Running through my mind instantly was that this was an opportunity to post the flag raising to the Molson Community Blog. Now, some might question why the “community blog”. It is relevant here given the fact that Molson is a long standing sponsor, support and partner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Our association runs long and deep with the organization, even back to those more staunch rival days between Montreal and Toronto (not to diminish the rivalry today !). Molson’s partnerships with all of our Canadian major league hockey teams is a large part of Molson in the community. Our sponsorship, brand programs, engagement in charity and support for each team is ongoing. Some may recall the Molson Canadian tag “It’s a CANADIAN game”. Molson is proud to support hockey in Canada at all levels. So, Leaf fans - you will love to see the flag flying alongside the 401 and 427 in Toronto to celebrate the opening of the 2008-09 season. Other fans…don’t take offence…be proud of your support for your team as well. Hey, if you would like, I would be proud to post your favourite flag photo of your team as a footnote to this blog. Special thanks to Tonia Hammer who promptly got over to the brewery yesterday and captured these shots and video of Leaf pride at the Molson Toronto Brewery. Cheers…go HOCKEY go !
To help kick-off the official launch of the Molson employee United Way 2008 campaign, about 20 Molson employees in Montreal volunteered their time on September 17th to help make a difference for Moisson Montreal, the largest food bank in Canada.
Moisson Montreal is an organization that is supported by the United Way and has 207 chapters spread out across the Island of Montreal. From the food products received, these organizations each month prepare 122,000 bags of provisions and 540,000 meals — coming to the aid of about 110,000 people.
The crew of volunteers also presented Johanne Théroux, Director General of Moisson Montreal, with a cheque for $3000, compliments of the Molson Donations Fund.
The 2008 Molson employee United Way campaign will launch nationally on October 14, with employees across the country participating in different activities to raise money. Last year Molson and employees contributed over $530,000!
I’m planning to do the CN Tower Climb for United Way at the end of October - my first time! Anyone else participating?
On Monday, September 22nd Cam Atchison, the District Sales Manager for Ottawa, and his team joined me at a Volunteer Canada initiative in Ottawa to help create a community garden.
Over 100 volunteers from VC’s Corporate Council showed up for the event which was a collaborative effort between Sustainable Living Ottawa East and Lady Evelyn Elementary School that was driven by the Grades 4/5/6 students. The children were the planners, workers and visionaries behind the entire project! Teams added value to the project by helping to complete some of the larger structural projects such as the installation of fencing, preparation of planting beds and building shade structures, with one student leading each volunteer group. Dirt was moved, posts and student-painted pickets were installed, sitting benches were built and walking paths were put down and our Molson team performed with their usual eagerness and good humour.
The students were appointed junior team leaders and were passionate about getting the job done to their expectations. Each one was delightful and so proud to take the leadership role in converting a small park into this amazing community garden. Several members living in the community also stopped by to personally thank us for helping out. The transition of the park in just three hours was remarkable.
Thanks Cam, Travis, Martin, Kyle, Shannon, Wayne, Grant, Jeremy and Chris! It was a fun-filled morning working together. I just hope your muscles fared better than mine!
