This year has been quite the year on so many fronts. It has been extremely challenging to be involved in the community but we certainly have tried. From walking, biking, curling, volunteering, cooking, and supporting many community events and groups we have tried to be there in some way.

The Smart Panda was out riding virtually this year to support the MS Bike Grand Bend to London ride this year. With a challenge to the Butt Uglies to ride 500km in July, some took it up and completed the challenge! Currently, Wade has raised just over $2,000.00 and would appreciate any and all support to end MS.

We are super excited to be able to support Big Brothers Big Sisters again this year. We were able to show off our sweeping abilities at the Curl-4-Kids event, but Covid-19 took over the world, so we did a virtual challenge to support Golf-4-Kids. This weekend Big Brothers Big Sisters of St Thomas Elgin is turning 50, and we are proud to be able to support the Walk-4-Kids.

The Rotary Club of St Thomas Railway City has had a quiet year because of the Covid-19 shutting down almost all of our fundraising and events. We have however been able to help out the community by handling all the parking at our weekly local farmers market that had to be moved to an outside venue. We are back helping out at Inn Out of The Cold which has been hit very hard by the covid-19 restrictions.

Christmas Care St Thomas Elgin is going to be running for its 41st year this year. We have had to make some big changes to accommodate all the restrictions in place because of Covid-19, but we will be open to make sure Christmas will be bright for those that need a little help this year. Smart Panda will be making sure that Apples will be in each and every hamper again this year.

Panda + Community Christmas 2018

The Christmas Season found Smart Panda busy helping Christmas Care with their 2018 Campaign. We were able to get 5000 pounds of apples from Great Lakes Farms, and with the help of St Thomas Railway City Rotary we packaged apples for every hamper going out this year. We also took the opportunity to sponsor a family at Christmas Care this year, helping to provide a great Christmas to a family in our community. The kids (Jackson & Abagail) did all the shopping for toys and food and we got to present it to Christmas Care. The Elgin Theatre Guild had their Christmas Panto in December, and it was a great success, Jackson was excited to go out and support the guild and is looking forward to the Spring performance!

Panda + Community Fall 2018

The past couple of months have seen a lot of activity in the community for the Smart Panda. We have golfed, planted trees, ran, biked, and dealt to name a few things.

At the end of July, Wade celebrated his 44th birthday by getting on his bicycle with his fellow MS Bike Ride Team – Butt Ugly, and spent two days cycling from Grand Bend to London and back. This 160km (100 miles) of fun has become a signature event for Smart Panda, and in the past 4 years has raised over $10,000. The Butt Ugly Team while small still makes a huge impact with over $70,000 this year and over $72,000 last year. It is so rewarding to ride with such an inspirational group, and looking forward to 2019!

In July, Wade turned the presidency of Railway City Rotary over to fellow business Partner Ian, and Ian is doing a fantastic job running the Rotary Club. So far we have been involved in several great projects, and have many to look forward to throughout the Rotary year. Last month we planted a couple hundred trees at Hawk Cliff with the Talbot Land Trust folks. We were honoured to help out our Local Legion by handing out Poppies – Lest We Forget. We helped out our local hospital by running the Reach-The-Beach water station, and at their Gala event by dealing Charity Blackjack. This week we are off to help out Eat-2-Learn with packing for one of their biggest fundraisers, and we will soon be helping serve up some great food at Inn-Out-of-The-Cold.

The Smart Panda continues its sponsorship with Big Brothers Big Sisters of St Thomas Elgin, and were out at the golf-4-kids event, and have continued doing the In-School-Mentoring Program. We feel strongly that everybody is better with a mentor, whether it be personally or professionally, which is how we have built Smart Panda, we make companies better with our trusted advise and experience (mentoring!).

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].

Panda + Community Summer 2017

Golfing, Big Ball Drop, Biking, Races, Rotary, Camp, Horses, Elephants and Christmas oh my!! The panda team has been very busy doing their thing this summer.

The pandas attended the Big Brothers Big Sisters GolfforKids event in August where OurOnlineCompany was a title sponsor. The Big Ball Drop via helicopter was exciting for everyone in attendance…

This summer the kids were busy with horses and theater camp. J attended Original Kids Theatre Camp and had an amazing time. So proud of him for trying something new and stepping outside his comfort zone. He was entrusted with the power of the panda as Red Ranger – awesome job! And A kept busy with the horses this summer. Back and forth to the barn through the week and successful shows on the weekends. She did a great job and even had to overcame the obstacle of her horse being injured but she persevered.

Pandas and friends took part in the Railway City Road Races in September. We came, we saw, we conquered – nothing pretty, just determination!! The Race helps raise money for local community Hospital projects. This year there were more than 550 participants!

September is Big Brothers Big Sisters Awareness Month. A purple ribbon was tied around the neck of our city’s mascot, Jumbo the elephant, for the month of September.

We’ve already started gearing up for Christmas. The pandas will be in the community helping locally with Christmas Care again this year.

Check back next month for pictures of Panda adventures in our communities! Till next month ………