July 2025 President's Report

In This Report:

For the second year, we are involved with the Ottawa Corporate Cup (OCC), an annual event to raise funds for local charities. This event is the perfect way to support us, while also enjoying a beautiful day on the golf course.

Held on August 12th at the Loch March Golf & Country Club, OCC costs $2,000 for two golfers, with $1,000 guaranteed for Help our Students – and perhaps a lot more, depending on where you place in the standings! In addition, you will receive a $1,500 tax receipt. Food and a networking reception at the end is included.

Meanwhile, for the charity with the most teams, there will be special recognition at the event and a free marketing video shoot, courtesy of Phantom Productions.

I would love to have the most teams! I will be there to cheer you on.

Please consider showing your support and signing up your company. If interested, please contact Jeff Todd at jeffrey.todd@wcpd.com

This President’s Report is divided into three sections:

News
Volunteer opportunities
Personal report

News

Welcome to our 16th year.

Last year was quite a good year and it’s getting better.

Thanks to our generous donors, the Board of Directors has approved adding 61 students next year. That’s going from three students per school to four, a financial commitment of about $435,000. For now, it’s a one-year commitment. We’re also adding two schools: Maplewood HS and the Académie d'apprentissage virtuel.

We hope that you, our donors, will support this number of awards.

We ended the 2024-25 fiscal year almost $120,000 better than the previous year. Some financial highlights:

An anonymous December donation of securities in the amount of $98,000.
A grant of $50,000 for three years from The Joyce Family Foundation. The grant was made in honour of the late Honourable Ed Lumley, P.C. C.M., the former Mayor of Cornwall, Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He was a tireless champion for vulnerable children and youth across Canada. He served as Board Chair of The Joyce Family Foundation since 2019 and trustee since 2010. We are very honoured to receive the grant in his honour.
Over 60 monthly donations were set up last year. More on that in the Personal part of this Report.
We ended the year having given out $342,000 in awards to 210 students. With the increase level of poverty in our city, it is clear from the students’ letters that we are having a real impact on their lives. One example:

“The money I’ve received from the HOST program has granted me something I’ve never had in the many years I’ve grown up in poverty, a sense of security. There are no words to describe how grateful I am for it, it’s the kind of thing you may never truly understand unless you experience it. For so long I had been paralyzed with a feeling of complete helplessness as I was too young to help my mom financially and doing anything else felt pointless. HOST gave me some hope, that I could stay focused on my schoolwork and that the house of cards I had been standing on wouldn’t collapse just yet. With the money from the HOST program, I could pay our internet bill for the month and save a little bit so that if my computer broke or there was another emergency we would be able to survive it. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who donates to the HOST program, and everyone involved with running it. I hope that one day I may be in a secure enough spot that I can donate twice as much as I’ve received.”

Volunteer opportunities

As we continue to grow, the burden on my wife, Linda, and me keeps increasing. It’s time for us to start looking for help with some tasks.

This year, we introduced the Ambassador Program and it has been a huge success. As of today, we have seven Ambassadors, covering 36 schools. In their feedback, they expressed their satisfaction with many aspects of their work. One example:

“I definitely enjoyed my first year as an Ambassador for HOST. In terms of time spent, the Ambassador commitment was very reasonable and compressed in a short time period from September to December. The awards presentations typically required only an hour for each school plus of course a few emails to find a mutually convenient time to visit the schools. I found the best part of the experience seeing the young people genuinely express their happiness and gratitude for the awards. I also enjoyed learning about their plans for the money and their next steps after high school graduation.”

Please send me an email if you are interested in becoming an Ambassador, hostprogram@rogers.com. We will try to find a sector that meets your needs.

My wife and I perform three main financial functions:

Recording the award recipients and monitoring the payments throughout the school year. This is called the Awards file.
Setting up each recipient into the RBC payment system, reconciling each month’s payments against the Awards file. This is called the Payments file.
Preparing monthly and annual financial reports, for the Board of Directors and the Canada Revenue Agency. This is called the Reports file.

As a first step, I would like to find a volunteer to look after the Awards file. A good working knowledge of Excel is critical. The workload varies throughout the year: very busy in the first few months of the school year, easing out for a few months with a final flourish in the closing months of the school year. Once the volunteer is comfortable with the work, I expect that the heavy part of the year would require 10 – 15 hours per week, easing to 4 – 6 hours per week.

We maintain a database of our key components, using the FileMaker software: Students, Principals, Counsellors and Donors. In conjunction with the database, we maintain a Contacts list for our emails, using Direct Mail for MAC software. Let’s call this our Database function.

We interact with schools and recipients throughout the year. Some are scheduled in certain times of the year, and some are as needed to convey instructions or information.

We would love to have someone who could complete grant applications when we are encouraged or invited to submit, or if we think it might be a good opportunity for us. Most of the information is static – it generally only changes when we change the number of awards or add new schools.

If any of these volunteers activities interest you, please contact us at hostprogram@rogers.com.

Personal Report

I am so grateful to so many people. It’s a long list, so here goes:

First and foremost, to my wife, Linda. Without her hard work, HOST would not be where we are today. We make a very good team but age is slowing us down. Refer to volunteer opportunities.
To the Board of Directors for their guidance and support. We only meet formally twice each year but every Director is a telephone call or an email away to provide help. This is an incredibly talented and experienced group.
To our monthly donors. They sign up to provide funds to us each month. Many of them have been with us for over 10 years. They give us financial stability, allowing us to plan our future with more certainty.
To all our donors. Whatever the amount of a donation, it represents someone who supports our cause and has faith in our ability to deliver effectively and efficiently. This was our 15th year of using 100% of all public donations (after we pay CanadaHelps fees) to support our students. It’s a responsibility that we take very seriously.
To the Principals and Counsellors. We are continually in awe of the school staff who reply to our emails sometimes on weekends and late evenings. Their love and dedication for their students is incredible and inspiring. Without them, HOST would not exist.
To our RBC “angels”. Since our very first year, they do everything possible to ensure our students can open a bank account. They help me when I pull my hair trying to set up a student with five or six names. They find out why a monthly transfer failed to go through. They are more than allies; they are close friends.
To the students who take the time to write us so many moving letters, making us cry but giving us such joy to see the hope they now have for a better future.

I’m sure I have forgotten someone. If I have, I apologize.

If you support what we do, please help us out. There are so many ways to help:

A monthly donation;
A one-time donation of money or securities;
Add a legacy gift in your Will that will continue to help students long after you’re gone. (A sample letter is available on our web site.)

Go to our web site’s Donation page for details:

(https://www.helpourstudentsprogram.com/how-to-donate/)

A final personal note.

The HOST Program is not a religion-based or faith-based charitable organization. The Board of Directors, the Ambassadors and all the school officials help us because they want to help students in need stay in school with the hope of graduation and a better future.

We do not ask students about their nationality, their skin colour, their race, their religion or their gender. We only care that they are working hard and in need of financial support.Today, I want to tell you why I have been doing this work for fifteen years. It’s my service to God. I have had a very blessed life. I believe that, when I die, we will review my life, what I have received and what I have given back. The scale is heavily tilted on the receiving side. I hope that my work with the HOST Program will have helped even out the scale to a slightly more balanced position. Every morning, I give myself to God and I tell Him that I want to serve in whatever way He asks, until I am no longer capable.