April 29, 2003 - 5:00pm
When Lori Ramsay volunteered to help out at the annual Festival of Trees Christmas celebration last year, she didn’t know that her volunteer spirit would also bring an award of $3,000 for her chosen charity.
Ramsay, an advisor with the Clarica Nanaimo Financial Centre, presented the cheque today to Susie Caswell, Manager of the Festival of Trees. The gift will go towards the Festival’s goal of building a new Library at Malaspina University-College.
The donation is part of Sun Life Financial’s volunteer program, which recognizes employees, advisors and their families who make significant commitments of time to registered charities.
In 2002, 417 Clarica and Sun Life people participated in the program. This resulted in 53,000 volunteer hours and $310,000 being donated to charitable organizations nationally.
In addition, volunteers from the company can be nominated for national and regional awards. This year Lori Ramsay was named for a regional award of $3,000.
She contributed more than 100 hours on planning and presenting children’s and family activities at the 2002 Festival of Trees Christmas Celebration at Beban Park. Over 6,200 people attended the four-day Festival, which ultimately raised $55,000 to support students at Malaspina University-College.
Roger Prior, Executive Director of the Malaspina University-College Foundation, paid tribute to Lori for her contributions and to Clarica for its recognition program.
“Lori and her husband John were tremendous assets to the Festival, and contributed in many ways to its success. They are great examples of the volunteer spirit and we are extremely proud that they are on the Malaspina team, and that they have been recognized in this very positive way.”
This year the Festival will take place November 27 to 30 at Beban Park Community Centre, and Lori will be volunteering again!
Tags: In the Community
