Ottawa, ON – Shaw Centre clients are doing good by donating their left-over event materials to communities across the city and the globe. Hope for Children, a non-profit organization aimed at providing children in Cameroon with access to education, is the latest beneficiary of the Leave a Legacy Program. Over 136 pounds of event materials, including pens, notebooks, water bottles and bags, were donated to the organization and shared with young students in the rural community of Tinifoinbi, Cameroon. This donation travelled internationally from Ottawa to Cameroon – a journey of over 9,500 kilometers.
The Leave a Legacy Program – one of three Shaw Centre Corporate Social Responsibility programs – offers clients the ability to leave a lasting environmental and social impact providing much needed goods to deserving not-for-profit organizations and communities in need across the city, and the globe. The program is presented to clients during the planning stage of their events, complimenting the facility’s dedication to sustainability and comprehensive waste management and recycling put in place when the Centre first re-opened its doors in 2011.
On September 28, 2016, Shaw Centre hosted the 2016 One Young World (OYW) Summit – the world’s premiere youth leadership forum that brought 13,000 young leaders from over 196 countries to the world-class convention centre, located in the heart of Canada’s Capital. During the Summit, three OYW delegates, Joannes Yimbesalu, Osman Raza and Heruka Kumararatne, inquired about the Leave a Legacy Program and worked with Shaw Centre volunteer colleagues to map out a plan to donate the event materials, spanning across two trips, to Hope for Children in Cameroon.
As founder of Hope for Children, Joannes understood the need for education tools and materials in developing countries like Cameroon. These ‘left behind’ meeting materials hold immense value as resources for students who are hoping to build better futures for themselves.
Additional clients holding conferences and events throughout the year, including Federation of Canadian Municipalities, IPBC Global and Association of Canadian Financial Officers, joined efforts by donating their additional conference materials and adding to the delivery. These items included name badge pouches and lanyards, reusable grocery bags, notebooks, pens, clipboards and water bottles.
“The look on the faces of the community members at the sight of the donation was remarkable,” said Joannes, “Their excitement was so evident. I loved seeing children and their parents creatively using the donated name badge pouches and lanyards as purses, bags for their belongings, or a place for their writing materials. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a song and dance of gratitude performed by parents of over 200 students who will benefit from the Shaw Centre donation – surely a scene I will never forget.”
This inspiring story is one of the many ways the Shaw Centre delivers on its objective of making lasting impacts from the delivery of extraordinary events.
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ABOUT THE SHAW CENTRE
The Shaw Centre was founded as the Ottawa Congress Centre in 1983. With project funding from the Province of Ontario, the City of Ottawa and the Government of Canada, the Ottawa Congress Centre was redeveloped into a new larger facility, which opened in April 2011 as the Ottawa Convention Centre (OCC). In October 2014, the OCC and Shaw Communications entered into a 10-year naming rights partnership, rebranding the facility as the Shaw Centre. The Shaw Centre is a state-of-the-art convention centre that generates economic impact by hosting conventions, trade shows, meetings, consumer shows and events. The Shaw Centre was recently named runner-up as the world’s best convention centre by the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC). Since re-opening its doors in 2011, the Centre has hosted over 3000 events and has added approximately $503M to the Ottawa-Gatineau area and Province of Ontario. The Shaw Centre is governed by a board of directors, managed by an expert team of professionals and operationally driven by inspired colleagues and selected suppliers whose main goal is to create extraordinary events. www.shaw-centre.com
The Ottawa Convention Centre® Corporation is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
ABOUT THE LEAVE A LEGACY PROGRAM
The Shaw Centre Leave a Legacy Program is a flexible and easy way for clients to leave a lasting community impact from their Shaw Centre event. Shaw Centre volunteer colleagues help clients identify opportunities to donate goods from their event or organization that could help those in need. Shaw Centre colleagues look after all the arrangements on a volunteer basis to ensure the donation goes where it can make a difference. Shaw Centre’s commitment to sustainability was outlined in the early planning phases of the facility, and Leave a Legacy Program is just one of the three Corporate Social Responsibility programs offered at the world-class convention centre located in the heart of Canada’s Capital. Recovering surplus food for people in need through Tablée des Chefs, a 15-year-old-non-profit Sustainable Food Brokerage Service, and Mealshare, a national non-profit organization that believes every child has a right to food, are two other programs offered to clients hosting events within the facility. https://rogers-centre.ca/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility-programs/
ABOUT HOPE FOR CHILDREN CAMEROON
Headquartered in the North West Region of Cameroon, Hope for Children operates in five communities envisioning a world where every child is receiving equal education and learning opportunities. Hope for Children provides a voice to, and hope for, marginalized youth in these underserved communities providing tools to build their potential and encourage strength.Hope for Children programs range from tuition assistance, to school construction, to the provision of education materials relating to gender equality and teenage pregnancy. Hope for Children Cameroon aims to create sustainable change in the communities in which it impacts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Julia Forbes
Director, Marketing & Sponsorship
Shaw Centre
jforbes@rogers-centre.ca
613-290-7177
