Sunday, February 21, 2016

Milton community walks - #cnoy16

It was phenomenal to stand in the Milton Sports Centre hall amidst the electrifying buzz as people queued up to register with the 10 registration desks for our 3rd Coldest Night of the Year. 

Well done Milton. You should be very proud of yourselves.



Milton Transitional Housing Event Directors, Lorna Turner & Margot Johnson celebrate exceeding our $40,000 #cnoy16 goal.



We had six local councillors, our local MP, sponsors, media, volunteers and those so young they could barely walk to those have walked wiles of Milton pavements in the lifetimes. Just extraordinary.

Indira Naidoo-Harris, Milton MP welcomes back walkers to theMilton Sports Centre and praising the incredible sense of community.

More than 50% of businesses and charities cease to exist within 3-years. Milton Transitional Housing meanwhile continues to expand in the roots in the community. It was fabulous to see the kids thoroughly enjoying themselves, aided by cake at Sobeys!



Empty Bowls sponsor Lynn Dickinson, Simply Creative, goes all out!
It was amazing to witness not just in the Milton Sports Centre but in the knowledge that the first walks set out at 3.45pm ET in Newfoundland and Labrador and that at 8.15pm ET those of Vancouver Island were just stepping out. An incredible 92 communities the breadth of Canada out there walking in balmy mild weather in support of those at risk of homelessness. At 6pm we were trending on Twitter!


It is important to remind ourselves why we were all out there walking the streets of Milton to raise both funds and awareness of those at risk of homelessness in our community and others across Canada.

Wendy Schau helps describe exactly why Milton Transitional Housing is important for those at risk of homelessness.

The Coldest Night of the Year scoreboard showed 83% towards its $4million target. The money is anticipated to keep rolling in, so the target remains achievable.

The national scorecard

We could not have run this event without the generosity of our sponsors and all the volunteers. Lorna Turner and Margot Johnson however do utterly deserve to be singled out and we are all inspired by their dedication, excellence and passion. Thank you ladies.

Thanks to all our incredible sponsors

There are lots of photos on the Milton Transitional Housing Facebook page. You can look back at out @MiltonTH1 tweets or search #cnoy16 to see activity across Canada.



Friday, February 19, 2016

Coldest Night of the Year - Special Charity Spotlight

Each Friday I run a Charity Spotlight feature on my business blog. It seemed highly appropriate to devote today's spotlight feature to Coldest Night of the Year. 


Read the special Charity Spotlight - Coldest Night of the Year here


Here is what Brian Carney, CEO of Blue Sea Philanthropy added to our recent discussion for our Charity Spotlight feature.

"Charities like MTH exemplify the type of charity we love working with though. Big community involvement. Fun, engaged leadership. A big vision for the future and from our stand point in CNOY, just really great people to work with on this national event. Donna, Lorna - the whole team has been a pleasure to work with. Milton will have a great walk this year again." 

The CNOY scoreboard is great to watch as it goes up every 15 minutes. There is still time to join a team, create a new team, donate and volunteer. Good luck everyone.

I am really excited to be walking tomorrow. Go The Flakes!!! I will be tweeting too using #cnoy16. Please follow and post too. I would love to be able to take part in each one of the 92 walks across Canada.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

"MTH has brought back the light of inspiration to me"

This is the inspiration message from a Milton Mom, reported in the Milton Canadian Champion. The Mom attributes getting herself and son back on their feet to Milton Transitional Housing.


The story by Julie Slack, a reporter at the Milton Canadian Champion, is so incredibly uplifting to all those with the foresight and passion to establish Milton Transitional Housing. It makes all the hard work worthwhile and all those involved, those who have volunteered and supported in any way should feel very proud ...and perhaps a little tearful.

Read the Kathy's story here.


Thank you to Kathy, Julie, Donna for bringing us this moving piece and inspiring message.

The Canadian Champion story also presents facts about homelessness in Milton and encourages us to participate in the amazing Coldest Night of the Year walk on Saturday February 20th.

To register now go to https://coldestnightoftheyear.org/location/milton.