Oakville Awards for Business Excellence Recap

On Wednesday night (April 26th) I dug out my “Past Chair of the Board” badge to wear to the Oakville Awards for Business Excellence (OABE). I was looking forward to again receiving the Community Builder of the Year Award on behalf of my employer. I accepted it in 2015 on behalf of FCT Insurance (formerly First Canadian Title). My history goes back even farther, as I was Chair of the Board of Directors at the Oakville Chamber of Commerce when we launched this award for the first time in 2012. So for me, it was very humbling to be accepting this award twice.

Below is my thank-you speech:

“Aanii, Hello

Thank you to the OABE Committee, Chamber, Rotary Club and Bell Canada, for the honour of receiving this award. Our purpose is “to build community through philanthropy,” and you can only build community in partnership with other community members and organizations. So I have many partners to thank tonight.

I am thrilled that Debwewin: the Oakville Truth Project has been recognized. We are delighted to be joined by the leader of the Debwewin Advisory Council Mississauga Elder Peter Schuler. We are grateful to the many organizations and individuals who joined the Acts of allyship and Grateful Treaty People campaign including the Chamber and I encourage everyone to get involved.

Actually everyone in this room is helping build community right now. The proceeds from this evening will become Rotary bursaries – and these are one of the awards offered on the Foundation’s Community Education Awards Hub. There are over 1,100 students online right now completing their applications for the upcoming award deadlines.

So thank you to our community, our sponsors: Ford Canada, Sagen, RBC, Cogeco, our many partners, our Fundholders and donors, our volunteer committees and board members, past and present, and our awesome team.

While we join an impressive list of previous award recipients. As host of this event, – The Chamber and Rotary Club will never receive this award so I would like to end by recognizing the great community building that they do for Oakville

Thank you, Miigwetch.“

Here is the list of previous recipients for reference: