Karen joined the Society’s Board of Directors in 2020. With her strong relationship building and communication skills as well as extensive experience working in and with child welfare all over Canada, Karen has already made a big impact. She has facilitated an Indigenous-focused Board Retreat in February 2021 and hosted numerous Talking Circles for our staff, resource parents and volunteers to deal with the weight of the news of the numerous mass graves on the sites of former residential schools. Karen is also a passionate volunteer with the Red Cross and has been instrumental in assisting them during the pandemic.

Emad has been with the Halton Children’s Aid Society for over ten years. He started as a volunteer mentor in 2011, then joined the Board of Directors in 2012, where he has held the role of Board Chair since 2018. As a mentor, Emad was extremely dedicated and committed to being a positive role model and friend to a youth in our care. As Board Chair, Emad’s strong leadership has made the Society’s Board one that has been recognized for its exceptional governance, especially during the last 18 months leading during a global pandemic.

Community Living Burlington is so pleased to recognize Jennifer Cunningham who has been a Leisure Buddy volunteer with CLB for 7 years. Jennifer and her buddy Danyelle enjoy spending time together crafting, walking the dogs, going for coffee. During Covid they continued to maintain their friendship through weekly video chats, phone calls and socially distanced visits when permitted.

Danyelle has introduced Jennifer to diamond painting which they continue to enjoy during weekly video chats. Jennifer is proud to be a part of a community that believes in participation and support for all community members.

Cathy joined the Halton Children's Aid Society in January 2020 as a volunteer mentor in our Collective Impact Program. 

Cathy was matched with a youth who lives independently and was going through a difficult time. The youth was very suspicious of having someone who wanted to be their friend. In the early stages of this relationship the youth acknowledges that they went out of their way to make the relationship challenging, to see if their mentor would really care for them. Despite these challenges, Cathy went out of her way to show the youth how dedicated she was to them. 

As part of the evaluation of the program, the youth completed a survey and described Cathy as their best-friend and someone who always wants the best for them. The youth described being overwhelmed that someone they have just come to know is willing to do so much for them. The youth also mentioned that Cathy has inspired them to become a mentor one day in the future, so they can help someone in return.

Nominated by:
Michelle McGaw,
Director of Human Resources and Organizational Excellence
Halton Children's Aid Society

Prior to COVID-19, Karen volunteered several hours a week helping with clothes sorting. Just before the global pandemic hit, Karen expressed an interest in taking on an important central position in the office; scheduling volunteers.

Karen has done amazing work in not only getting everything coordinated and organized but simply taking and shouldering most of the responsibilities. Answering the incessantly ringing phone, being the main point of contact for the main email where 40-50 emails a day need to be answered, liaising and coordinating with all community and corporate partners and scheduling volunteers, receiving and recording donations, managing the database, coordinating drivers and pick ups of food and donations, assigning shifts and volunteer recruitment - the list is long. Karen has been a huge pillar of support.

Nominated by:
Andrea Dodd, Board of Directors
Compassion Society

Jim joined the agency in 2010 as a volunteer driver and as a volunteer with our food for life program. 

Jim has dedicated every Wednesday for the past 10 years to packaging and delivering food to members of our community who have been referred by our workers. 

When all other volunteer programs were placed on hold during lockdown – Jim was called on to continue his weekly deliveries, which he did without hesitation.  In fact, since March, the need in the community grew to almost double the size, but Jim never complains and happily makes it happen week after week.

In order to ensure everyone’s safety, the food now comes to us in pre-packaged bags and Jim ensures contactless and safe delivery by calling the family when he arrives and dropping the food off at their door.  We can always rely on Jim’s dedicated service.

Nominated by:
Michelle McGaw,
Director of Human Resources and Organizational Excellence
Halton Children's Aid Society

Ann and Ethan founded the Frontline Clap, which started out as a Friday night salute to our Frontline workers. She continued to work tirelessly to promote a two-minute show of appreciation for our community, and expanded it to a fundraiser with Frontline Clap t-shirts and a Frontline Burger in partnership with The WORKS.

Nominated by:
Anissa Hilborn, President
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation

Ethan and his mother Ann founded the Frontline Clap, which started out as a Friday night salute to our Frontline workers. He continued to work tirelessly to promote a two-minute show of appreciation for our community, and expanded it to a fundraiser with Frontline Clap t-shirts and a Frontline Burger in partnership with The WORKS.

Nominated by:
Anissa Hilborn, President
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation

Joan has been with Halton Children's Aid for close to 40 years in a variety of volunteer roles including: board member, driver, mentor, seasonal and special events volunteer. 

Most recently Joan has joined Jim in making food deliveries to members of our community who live in the northern area of Halton region. When our workers identified a need to deliver food to families in the north, Joan stepped up to make it happen.  

Joan is always someone that we can rely upon and she is often the first person we think of when we have a family in need.  Recently a worker identified a family who needed winter clothing for a 7 month old baby girl. Joan went out of her way to sort through donations of clothing, washed everything, sourced out extra baby food and formula and called upon her own personal group of friends to provide additional supplies for the baby. She then delivered everything to the family on the worker’s behalf. 

Joan always goes above and beyond the call of duty – Halton Children's Aid is very lucky to have her on their team. 

Nominated by:
Michelle McGaw,
Director of Human Resources and Organizational Excellence
Halton Children's Aid Society

Don recognized that restaurants were struggling keep their doors open, so he created 'Project Kindness'.

Then, he heard about a Burlington family that lost one of their own to COVID-19. He was a father, a husband, a brother. The family was devastated and faced tremendous financial challenges ahead.

So, Don began visiting supermarkets and restaurants to obtain gift cards to ensure this family had their basic needs met.

Then he thought, why stop here? There are many more people struggling due to the pandemic.

Through a Facebook group entitled, “Burlington Ontario, Takeout and Delivery” – founded by Trevor Poczynek and Sandy Stark – that now has over 12,000 members, Don began distributing gift cards from local restaurants, which he purchased himself, to people struggling financially, physically or emotionally.

To date, hundreds of people have been impacted by his generosity and kindness.

Nominated by:
Various Members of the Facebook Group 'Burlington Ontario, Takeout and Delivery' 

Christen is a Director with African Caribbean Council of Halton (ACCH) and is their Community outreach and development lead.

She also leads two Employee Resource Group’s at Eaton Industries in Burlington, and WAVE iERG for women supporting stem and the advancement and empowerment of women in the electrical industry and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), which is designed to identify new ways for listening, learning, co-creating with, and investing in BIPOC.

Christen believes in, engaging with and encouraging others; to value differences and share different perspectives. She is passionate about dismantling racism and believes that racism is not only violence – it is differences in rights, privileges and opportunity baked into our institutions over generations.

One of the most outstanding qualities we admire most is her ability to take on so much responsibility with a smile. She is a role model worthy of emulation.

Nominated by:
African Caribbean Council of Halton

Bob is always there to lend a hand. He is compassionate and understands the impact that GOOD food has on someone's life.

If you see our Food for Life van on the road, you will have seen Bob. He is dedicated to moving GOOD food into the homes of our friends and neighbours in need. Volunteers like Bob make our community a stronger and better place. 

Nominated by:
Donna Slater, Director of Impact
Food for Life

At the beginning of the pandemic, Angelo wanted to do something to support healthcare workers and our Hospital.  He created a fundraising campaign called MOVID-19 where he grew a beard and would not shave it until he raised his goal of $50K from the community, which he would match dollar-for-dollar for a total of $100K for our Hospital.  He ended up raising $153,800! Surpassing his original goal by over 50%.

Nominated by:
Anissa Hilborn, President
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation

The Burlington Dads Group was founded by Rene Schuster in 2013 as a way for dads in the community to help each other. Sharing tools, giving or asking for advice, and making new friends was the cornerstone of the group that now boasts over 4,500 members.

Today, the Burlington Dads focuses on helping various organizations throughout the community, and assisting people in need. To date, they have raised over $200,000 and donated countless hours of labour for a multitude of initiatives.

Beverly has been a volunteer at the Burlington Foodbank since the end of July.  

Before retiring Bev was an Educational Assistant with the Halton Catholic District School Board, working with students with special needs.

Soon after her retirement Bev began volunteering at the Burlington Foodbank once a week. She found her niche in the Produce area, where we now affectionately call her the 'Produce Queen' 

Bev is extremely reliable and joins us at least 3 days a week. She makes sure that there is a steady stream of music playing while she is here and is often caught singing and dancing!  We are happy to have Bev on our team of volunteers!

Nominated by:
Robin Bailey, Executive Director
Burlington Foodbank

Cherie has gone from a twice a week clothing volunteer to a pillar of support
committing three days a week and serving nearly 60 clients a day.

Since COVID-19, Cherie has taken over the entire food (fresh, frozen, non perishables), and hygiene articles bulk bagging, bulk purchase, and put teams together to get it all going. She regularly leads volunteer teams of 15 to 50 to make sure everything gets done.

Without her support - the Compassion Society would have struggled to take care of all the families that come in for help.

Nominated by:
Andrea Dodd, Board of Directors
Compassion Society