Smart Thinking Newsletter

Message from Wade

Don’t be fooled by this weather (t-shirts and shorts while running in Canada) its December and this year is all but over, which means its time for New Year’s Resolutions!  Do you have your resolutions figured out? We at the Smart Panda have our sights set really high for 2016 – doubling staff, more clients, more projects, more offerings and more giving back!

We have found that if we set our goals (resolutions) and state them to everybody – the funniest thing happens – THEY HAPPEN! Do you need some help working out your goals for 2016, or do you have goals but need to figure out a way to achieve them, or do you already know goals and the way but know it isn’t going to happen?  Maybe its time to grow your team ——

Christmas Time in Panda Land!

We have been really busy in the community the past month getting the Christmas cheer out!

The Railway City Rotary Club, St Thomas Junior B Stars & The Panda organized our annual Bears for Christmas Care Campaign.  In the end we were able to get over 50 bears out to the Toy Mountain which all went to Christmas Care and out of the proceeds we put together over $1150 to buy food and gifts for families that need a little extra help making Christmas special for every kid!

This year Railway City Rotary Club was asked help out the local Salvation Army with their Kettle Campaign.  The Kettle Campaign is the biggest fundraiser for our Salvation Army and we were thrilled to be asked to help out.  We raised a lot of money on the 2 days that we were out in the community at the local grocery store but we didn’t come close to the Fire Fighters at the Liquor Store – not too sure why, hmmmm.  All the money raised goes back into our community to support many great projects and causes. It was heart warming to speak with many people about what we are doing in the community and to see the incredible generousity of our community.

The Railway City Rotary Club had their annual Christmas Party where we managed to raise several hundred dollars for the fight against Polio. Great food, Great Friends, Great Kids, even Santa made an appearance with lots of toys and gifts.  Combined with Family Christmas that saw many new faces and one old face (Gammie @ 98 was cruising in the door to celebrate Christmas with the family – Just Awesome!). I wonder what Christmas Day will actually bring …..

Getting ready to head out to Las Vegas / San Diego / Los Angeles next week for some R&R.  Going to go visit our Panda friends at the San Diego Zoo and looking forward to seeing our donation going to work!

Enjoy the Magic of Christmas – Till next month……

November has been an amazing month for the Panda. Not only did we have a fantastic month of weather which allowed for some excellent outdoor running (40+km), but we got the chance to help out the community without freezing!

Early in the month The St Thomas Railway City Rotary Club assisted the Local Legion 41 with their Remembrance Day Poppy Campaign.  Hundreds of people stopped by our location and generously donated some money and received their poppy.  All the funds raised during the Poppy Campaign goes back into our community to support various Veteran programs at our local hospitals and within the community.

The Panda got to lead the 2nd Annual Bears for Christmas Care campaign put on by The St Thomas Railway City Rotary Club.  The campaign supports the local charity program Christmas Care which provides over 1600 hampers to the community during Christmas to provide a truly Merry Christmas for all the families in the community that need a little help. We run this program in association with the St Thomas Junior B Stars Hockey Team, who collect food and toy donations every year in support of the Christmas Care Campaign.  We are extremely proud to say that we reached our goal of 100 Bears sold, and currently are sitting at 111 sold with 50 Bears being donated directly back to the Stars Toy Mountain.  The final numbers are just being tallied but the bear proceeds appear to be in excess of $1140.00 which will be going to Christmas Care this year.  The Bears are very excited to get to their new homes to put smiles on kids faces this holiday season!

So now we are gearing up to work with Christmas Care to help package up food and gifts into the over 1600+ hampers that will be going out to the community.  It is a great community project that brings out the good in everyone and puts smiles on many faces.  We also have partnered up with Salvation Army to ring the bell at the Kettle Campaign this holiday season.  I personally have never taken the opportunity to ring the bell before, but I am excited to get out help them raise funds for many local programs and projects.  Lastly, our local Inn Out of The Cold program is now in full swing and our Rotary club has been out cooking up a storm.  I will personally be doing the dishes a couple of times this month, and looking forward to seeing people enjoying good food and being safe and warm.

Till next month……