Panda + Community (Since Last Newsletter in 2017)
Santa, a crazy tree dude, and The Panda in an ugly Christmas Sweater! Always a good time to be had at the Rotary Christmas Party this year. Wait was that the way we started last years message? Yes it was!
This holiday season has seen an increase in projects, we again joined forces with Great Lakes Farms and packaged close to 10,000 apples for the Christmas Care food hampers. Rotary was out in force and sold another 80 teddy bears for Bears-4-Christmas Care campaign this year, and almost 70 bears and all the proceeds went back to support Christmas Care. We rang the bell for Salvation Army Kettles and started off the Christmas Season by supporting our Local Legion with the distribution of Poppies for Remembrance Day.
Since updates have been a little thin this year, we have also been busy working with our Local Big Brothers Big Sisters program with being the title sponsor. We have Bowled, Curled, Golfed, heard Elvis sing and worked as In School Mentors. I love their motto: “Start Something Big!” I am very proud to be associated with such an amazing program, because just like our business where we believe everybody deserves to have a trusted advisor/mentor, kids need mentors that they can trust!
Smart Panda was out riding with Team Butt Ugly at the 2017 Grandbend to London (and back) MS Bike ride. Our team raised over $72,000 dollars towards ending MS once and for all. There is so many promising research programs going on and reports of success are starting to come in, we may very well be on the home stretch! Wade was able to raise over $2500 dollars and found himself in the 100 club this year. Thank you to everybody that supported Wade’s ride this year!
Wade and Ian are coaching hockey again and having a blast. Our Rotary Club also was out supporting our local hospital gala which raised over 70,000 dollars with the dealing of charity blackjack. We are continue to support World Wildlife “Got To Save The Panda’s”! We even planted a few trees.
It will be interesting to see how we top 2017 in 2018, but we are going to try our best! All the best…..
Well, 2018 has started over like a blast, and we are now 3 months in, but we have been busy working out at Inn Out Of The Cold serving meals and cleaning dishes, busy doing Rotary work, and gearing up to go curling this weekend. You can always support The Smart Panda – Our Online Company Big Brother Big Sister of St Thomas Elgin’s curling team [click here].
