Youville Centre > Events

Events

Tag: Events

Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids ~ A Fundraiser for Youville Centre

GRTTWAK Postcard FrontGRTTWAK Postcard Reverse

Gather your friends and family and enjoy a night out in support of Youville Centre’s young mothers and their children! Inspired by the Toronto event of the same name, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids is an open mic style event where guests share funny, heartwarming and just plain hilarious things they wrote as kids! Whether it was a school project, a poem, a note you wrote to your high school crush, or a heartwarming letter you wrote to a family member, the words you spoke as a child or a teen will definitely sound different being read by you now! Come with your friends and family, enjoy some refreshments, have a good laugh, and get a guided tour of Youville Centre if you wish!

If you’re brave enough to read something, please let us know in advance when you purchase your tickets. For a taste of what to expect, check out this video:

Get your tickets by clicking this link below:

Tickets

Many thanks to Youville Centre’s Board of Directors and their organizing committee, and to the generous event sponsors, TPH (The Printing House), Spin Dessert Cafe and Bistro and Hogsback Brewing Company.

Christmastime at Youville Centre

Christmastime is a wonderful time of year at Youville Centre, with many special events for our young mothers and their children, generous donations from our wonderful community, and visits from helpful volunteers and guests to make the season bright. It goes without saying that without YOU, we would not be able to provide such a magical Christmas for our young moms and babies each year.

Please take a photo journey with us as we share with you how our centre celebrates the holiday season! This photo journey only highlights some of the generous donors who generously gave at this time of year — we are grateful to all who donated in the form of time, financial contributions, diapers, toys, clothing, bath products, baby products, special treats, gift cards, non-perishable food items and so much more!

Baking Cookies

Tree in lobbyOn Community Action Day, volunteers from Hydro Ottawa decorated the centre and baked Christmas cookies for our Christmas luncheon.*Stay tuned to our blog and upcoming newsletter for a story about a couple of very special guests who visited the centre and helped prepare us for the holidays!

Christmas CircleMoms, staff and babies sang Christmas songs at our Mom & Me Christmas Circle Event.

Pyjama Elf“The Pyjama Elf” (a.k.a. a new, passionate donor and her team) visited and provided brand new pyjamas for each mom and child in our centre.

christmas cheerWe were chosen as a beneficiary of the Christmas Cheer Foundation which enabled us to provide food vouchers for our clients so that they could provide for their young families over the Christmas break.

ottawa-food-bankThe Ottawa Food Bank provided holiday extras for our clients in the form of turkeys, hams and grocery vouchers so that our young moms could prepare a special dinner for their children.

Youstore toysOur students “shopped” in the Christmas You-Store with play “dollars” earned through our incentive program. This empowered our young moms to choose and wrap a gift or two to give to their child on Christmas morning.

BearsWe received our annual donation of Christmas teddy bears for the children from a group of loyal donors.

VolunteersOur faithful volunteers picked up, sorted, washed and organized all of the in-kind donations of clothing, toys and other items for our clients — and they did it all with a smile and a healthy portion of Christmas spirit!

Santa and child Christmas karaoke  Mom baby santa suit mom daughter eatingTELUS 1Last but not least, we hosted a Christmas Luncheon for our moms, their children and their partners or family members. Everyone enjoyed a tasty turkey dinner, and our special “Elves” from TELUS handed out gift cards to each of the moms! Also helping in the kitchen and serving tables were: board members, community partners, volunteers and staff. Christmas songs were sung and a great time was had by all.

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us at Youville Centre provide a magical Christmas for our young moms and their children. We wish all of you a healthy, safe and happy holiday season!

Join us this Friday for A Toast to the Ladies!

We are so grateful to have supportive donors in the community thinking of our young moms and children here at Youville Centre. This year we were fortunate to meet a young woman named Elaine Larsen who has single-handedly organized a fundraiser for Youville Centre called A Toast to the Ladies. This event will be held this Friday, March 22 from 6-9 pm at the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) and it boasts an evening of food, music, photography and fun all in support of our young moms and their children. A popular Ottawa band, The Love Machine will be playing, and photographs taken by the students of SPAO will be displayed.

Please join us!

Youville Centre’s 25th Anniversary: A Gallery

We are so grateful to everyone who attended Youville Centre’s 25th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, October 25 at the Hampton Inn Conference Centre, and to all of our event and silent auction sponsors who helped to make this event such a success! We will be sharing a full recap of the evening’s festivities in our upcoming newsletter, so if you are not subscribed to our list, please email us at communications[at]youvillecentre[dot]org to sign up.

The event was a wonderful opportunity to bring together Youville supporters past and present, look back on how far we’ve come in the past 25 years, and raise funds to support the next 25. We were so pleased to present awards to our 3 former Executive Directors, as well as a group of key volunteers, donors and advocates for our young mothers and their children. The event also featured three engaging speakers, a retrospective slideshow and a wonderful silent auction.

We were overwhelmed by a few surprise announcements from our Keynote Speaker, Shannon Gorman of TELUS and her friends and colleagues, one of which was a substantial donation to a proposed Mentorship Program. We look forward to sharing more information about this program and many other future endeavours at Youville Centre.

Please enjoy a small gallery of photos from the event below. We look forward to sharing more news from the event in our Fall/Winter Newsletter which should reach your mailbox or your inbox in the coming weeks.

*All photos by Moments of Greatness ~ Photography by Gregory Kolz

(L to R): Former Executive Director Judith Sarginson, Founder & Former Executive Director Sister Betty Ann Kinsella, Former Executive Director Sister Maco Cassetta

Youville Centre Volunteer Angel Award Recipients with Cindy Simpson, Executive Director (far left) and Tara Newman, Youville Centre Board Chair & President (fourth from right)

Longtime supporter of Youville Centre Gerry Clarke peruses Youville Centre’s most recent program report.

Heather Flinn added wonderful ambience to the evening by playing the harp beautifully to welcome our guests.

Jennifer-Anne Gibson was our Alumnae Speaker for the evening.

Sister Betty Ann Kinsella with Kim (right) and Abbey (left). Kim is a Youville Centre graduate and Abbey is her daughter.

Nathalie and Nick Lynda, Youville Centre Alumnae. Nick was our Second Generation speaker for the evening.

Generous donors made it possible for some of our alumnae to attend the event, and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly!

Creative centrepieces for the event were artfully designed and assembled by our Child Development Staff.

Caroline Pidgeon, Youville Centre Volunteer for 18 years, was honoured with the United Way Community Builder Award. We were very pleased to have Michael O’Byrne present this award to Caroline on behalf of United Way Ottawa.

Sister Betty Ann Kinsella with longtime Board Member Mike Lundy, Youville Centre Angel Award recipient Steve Georgopoulos and friends.

The incomparable Leanne Cusack was our fabulous Emcee for the evening.

What an unbelievable surprise to receive this generous donation from our Keynote Speaker, Shannon Gorman of TELUS and members of the TELUS Community Board. Pictured above are (L to R): Dennis Jackson, Cindy Simpson (Executive Director, Youville Centre), Barbara Crook, Jim Orban and Shannon Gorman.

Alumnae & Former Staff Return to Youville to Celebrate 25 Years

 

On Tuesday, October 23rd, Youville Centre Former Staff and Alumnae dating back to Youville’s beginnings 25 years ago visited our centre to reconnect and celebrate. The centre was full of smiles, laughter and even a few tears as everyone in attendance enjoyed reminiscing and reuniting. It was very special to have former Executive Directors, Sister Maco Cassetta and Judith Sarginson in attendance, with Sister Maco having traveled many miles to be there. Photo collages lined the walls, alumnae success stories were displayed, and a “museum” of Youville Centre artifacts was artfully arranged in the boardroom.

Staff and alumnae enjoyed writing messages on our Youville Centre “Yearbook Banner” to commemorate the evening. It was a lively reception and everyone enjoyed a slideshow set to music. Some alumnae even spotted themselves, their former classmates and their children in the photos displayed. Tours of  the childcare rooms and classrooms were given to allow alumnae and their children to re-live their time spent at Youville Centre. 

This event was an interesting opportunity for alumnae and former staff to see how Youville Centre has evolved over the past 25 years. It was a joy to see some of Youville Centre’s former “babies” who are now school-aged children, and it was wonderful to acknowledge Youville Centre alumnae and the accomplishments they have made since they graduated.

Many thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who lent their time and energy to the planning and execution of this event. Special thanks to the five alumnae who shared their personal stories that were posted on the walls for all to see. Please stay tuned to our blog as we will be sharing those five stories in the weeks to come!

Youville Centre Donors Love to Golf!

We are very fortunate to have people such as Hassa Mirchandani and his team at Bytown Travel Ltd., the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council # 9544 and the Knights of Columbus of Divine Infant Parish in our donor community. Each year these three groups each host a golf tournament, and Youville Centre’s young mothers and children are grateful to benefit from their charitable efforts. What better way to raise funds and awareness about a charitable cause than to get some fresh air, exercise and socialize with friends and colleagues. Thank you to everyone who participated in these three tournaments!

Pictured above, L to R: Mr. Claude Sauve (General Manager, Fairmont Chateau Laurier), Deborah Sauve, William Joe and John Jarvis (General Manager, The Westin Ottawa) enjoy a sunny day of golf at the 17th Annual Bytown Travel Golf Classic in support of Youville Centre and the Education Foundation of Ottawa.

L to R: Cindy Simpson (Executive Director, Youville Centre), Clarence Maheral and Stephen Duludeof the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council, with two of Youville Centre’s infants.

Recently, Stephen Dulude and Clarence Maheral of the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council #9544 dropped by the Centre to deliver the proceeds from this year’s Rita Maheral Memorial Charity Golf Tournament. We are quite blessed to be a chosen charity of this group of Knights. Thank you!

Last but not least, the Knights of Columbus of Divine Infant Parishalso held a golf tournament, this one was in support of both Youville Centre and Miriam Centre. This generous group plans to make it an annual event so we look forward to it next year! With a great turnout, fun was had by all and they raised over $7,000 to be divided among our two charities. Many thanks to the event organizers and sponsors, and to everyone who attended. Please see below for a few photos from the tournament!

If you are interested in participating in any of these golf tournaments next  year, please contact us at (613) 231-5150 Ext. 128 and we would be happy to connect you with our generous donors!

Happy Golfing!