OWNG has received an amazing amount of support this year! The neighbourhood group was the recipient of the $500 Acorn Prize from the Oaktree Foundation in April and to quote them we “won by a landslide!” Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to vote for us. A very special thanks goes out to the wonderful folks at Willow Road RBC who have helped in supporting the centre with RBC Team Grants and all their volunteer time at our community events. This year we also celebrated the very first free community fridge in Guelph, located at OWNG! This was made possible by the generous people from Road to Zero Waste, who continue to supply our neighbourhood with fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. Staff at Onward Willow have joined forces with the Shelldale Outreach team so we can better support our community members — we’re all pretty excited about this as it helps provide more collaborative support to those in need.
One of the most exciting things that happened so far this year is that we wrote a grant and won the $5000- Seedling Prize from the Oaktree Project! The funds will be used to start programming around a clothing/textile recycling and re-purposing project where we’ll be making new items out of old fabric. This will help alleviate the landfill disposal of the 1000s of pounds of unusable fabric we receive each year. We hope to begin programming in the Fall. Anyone interested in being part of this can e-mail: onwardwillownsw@gmail.com.
Sundae Fundae was a great success this year with almost 100 people coming out to enjoy sundaes, the Inflated Ego Balloon Entertainer, caricatures from Taylor’s Tunes, a slip and slide and a fun community get-together! There were tons of happy kids! There is also an ongoing craft day every Wednesday through the summer months onsite at OWNG with Shauna, our Neighbourhood Group Assistant. There will be a fun craft happening between 11am-1pm for kids ages 6-13 yrs. Come out and get creative!
Finally, many, many thanks go out to Homelife Group for the Easter Food Drive; Wild Rose Consignment Boutique for their ongoing clothing donations; to Apple Salon for raising more than $2000- for OWNG through their annual cut-a-thon fundraiser; Kelly Caldwell for the generous sponsorship of our kid’s activities at the Marketplace & Fair and a HUGE thanks to all our dedicated volunteers! You are the heart & soul of the neighbourhood group!
