It's Winterlicious in the city again - 150 restaurants in the city of Toronto will be offering 3-course prix-fixes from January 29 to February 11 - and the lead sponsor, American Express, will donate 5% of purchases charged to Amex Cards at participating restaurants to Food Banks Canada, up to a total donation of $40,000.
I've taken advantage of this promotion and its summer incarnation, Summerlicious, almost from inception. It's a great way to try out the city's pricier restaurants if you have the patience to wait out the inevitable busy phone lines, or discover hidden gems at what is usually very good value.
Of my Winterlicious plans so far: I've a lunch next Friday and a dinner 3 weeks tomorrow...hopefully I'll be able to keep it at that...though I suspect there may be a couple more impromptu dinners thrown in the mix.
With my training, I've been eating clean consistently and it's paid off: I tried on a dress I bought a couple years ago in Vancouver last night that had gotten too tight and it fit again! Plus, my CEO's EA commented on how I'd lost a lot of weight. Now, truth be told, I've only lost a few pounds. What I lack in weight loss, I've gained in muscle mass. I'm more toned and tight and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to "burn," aka the next phase in my training where we "shrink wrap" the muscles that have developed.
I'll just have to make up for these indulgences by eating super clean the rest of the week. You only live once, right?
Showing posts with label Charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charity. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Help Haiti
It's impossible not to be affected by the earthquake that hit Haiti last Tuesday. I find it difficult to look at the images and avoided the papers the first few days because to look at them would bring on the tears and I can't be crying at work.
If you live in Canada, and hadn't already heard, the federal government, through the Canadian International Development Agency, will be matching individual donations to registered charities specifically earmarked for Haiti earthquake relief up to a total of $50MM through to February 12. I first donated through Plan Canada, the charity through which I sponsor a child, and just made another donation to Unicef Canada after watching CNN's efforts, which I found out about through Twitter, search #CNNHelpHaiti.
Help if you can.
Every dollar makes a difference.
Incidentally, my company also happens to have a charity matching program, so my dollars in this instance go 3x as far. Check out your policies at work and take advantage of them if you can.
If you live in Canada, and hadn't already heard, the federal government, through the Canadian International Development Agency, will be matching individual donations to registered charities specifically earmarked for Haiti earthquake relief up to a total of $50MM through to February 12. I first donated through Plan Canada, the charity through which I sponsor a child, and just made another donation to Unicef Canada after watching CNN's efforts, which I found out about through Twitter, search #CNNHelpHaiti.
Help if you can.
Every dollar makes a difference.
Incidentally, my company also happens to have a charity matching program, so my dollars in this instance go 3x as far. Check out your policies at work and take advantage of them if you can.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Go Free Rice
You have time to kill? Well go and play Free Rice - for each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Thanks to the competitive element - my best vocab level so far is 43 - it's better than any Word-of-the-Day and you actually learn something while killing time and doing good. For example - did you know that tatterdemalion is another word for ragamuffin because I didn't even know it was a word! How's that for value-add?
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Off to the ball....
The Motionball Gala, touted by some as the social event of the season for the 25-40 year old set, was held last night and I was in attendance. I've never been interested in these things but my friend wanted to go because she wanted to dress up so I thought, why not? So, despite the crappy weather last night, we got all dolled up in our party dresses and stepped out in our satin heels to sip cosmos from the open bar. There was a silent auction and a fashion show with performers on pointe and a good time was had by all.
I cabbed it home and somewhere along the way lost my house keys. sigh. This has clearly been my week to lose things - somehow I'm not convinced that they will turn up like my phone did.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Perfect weather for a run
The weather was perfect in Toronto yesterday for me and the other 30,000 or so runners who participated in the Run for the Cure which raised about $5 million here. The event raised $26.5 million and saw 170,000 participants run in locations across the country.
10 o'clock in the morning and this is where I was at near the start on the corner of Queen and University:
10 o'clock in the morning and this is where I was at near the start on the corner of Queen and University:
The masses behind me... 
...and in front.
I made the mistake of not bringing my headphones with me, so I ran without music...which was bad because I got bored. The first kilometre was alright, but the second and third were awful since I stopped and walked several times. I was determined to run the last 2 kilometres though, and it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be, perhaps because I knew the end was near. All in all, it took me 37:09 to run the route...which is about my usual pace. I'm going to do better next time.
Post-run mingling in Nathan Phillips Square
Friday, September 28, 2007
Run for the Cure
I'm participating in the Run for the Cure this Sunday to help raise money for breast cancer research.I joined a team started by a friend of a friend, who's mother had breast cancer but is thankfully now in remission. It's been a long, long time since I've raised money for anything and thanks to the friends, family and colleagues who have sponsored me, I surpassed my initial fundraising goal.
If you're interested in making a donation, please click here. And if you'd like to do a little something everyday, please click here to help fund free mammograms.
Thank you.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Yay for offsites!
One thing I learned: I'd make a terrible fighter pilot.
One thing I'm grateful for: My mom, who still packs me a yummy lunch to take to work.
One thing that made me laugh: Matt's dancing video at Wherethehellismatt.com. Check it out.
My new Serta mattress was delivered this morning and I'm lounging in bed as I write this. It has this funny smell which I hope will go away...new mattress smell is certainly not as pleasant as new car smell.
I've spent the last 2 days offsite: Yesterday was our department holiday party. We had a meeting in the morning, and then went offsite to the west end for a catered lunch at a place where you can simulate flight in fighter jets. Ya, you read right. How's that for a corporate event? It was...interesting. Not something that I would go seek out and do on my own, certainly. I crashed and burned....a lot. I don't think I had any "kills" while I was in flight. At the end of the day, I was given the "Combat Drone Award" for "the selfless provision of missile target practice by using ones self as a live target, to aid in the skills development of your peers."
Today we volunteered as a group at the Chum City Christmas Wish warehouse for the morning filling toy orders. If you're interested in giving, there's a shortage of gifts for tweens and teenagers both male and female. We finished around 12:30, went out for lunch as a group and were given the rest of the day off....so I did some Christmas shopping and spent the remainder of the afternoon writing my Christmas cards.
I surprised myself by heading to the gym tonight. I had a good run - no cramps while I ran my 5.3km - and no anger to motivate me this time...just pure determination. And it felt damn good. :)
One thing I'm grateful for: My mom, who still packs me a yummy lunch to take to work.
One thing that made me laugh: Matt's dancing video at Wherethehellismatt.com. Check it out.
My new Serta mattress was delivered this morning and I'm lounging in bed as I write this. It has this funny smell which I hope will go away...new mattress smell is certainly not as pleasant as new car smell.
I've spent the last 2 days offsite: Yesterday was our department holiday party. We had a meeting in the morning, and then went offsite to the west end for a catered lunch at a place where you can simulate flight in fighter jets. Ya, you read right. How's that for a corporate event? It was...interesting. Not something that I would go seek out and do on my own, certainly. I crashed and burned....a lot. I don't think I had any "kills" while I was in flight. At the end of the day, I was given the "Combat Drone Award" for "the selfless provision of missile target practice by using ones self as a live target, to aid in the skills development of your peers."
Today we volunteered as a group at the Chum City Christmas Wish warehouse for the morning filling toy orders. If you're interested in giving, there's a shortage of gifts for tweens and teenagers both male and female. We finished around 12:30, went out for lunch as a group and were given the rest of the day off....so I did some Christmas shopping and spent the remainder of the afternoon writing my Christmas cards.
I surprised myself by heading to the gym tonight. I had a good run - no cramps while I ran my 5.3km - and no anger to motivate me this time...just pure determination. And it felt damn good. :)
Friday, December 01, 2006
'Tis the season for giving
The warm weather we had up until yesterday is now gone. No more days in the mid-teens...looks like Old Man Winter has finally arrived because I can hear the dull roar of the wind outside.
Work today was pretty much a write-off. What did I do? Well. I was on Friday Snacks duty, so I stopped to pick up a dozen chocolate croissants, bagels and assorted cream cheese for my group. It rained pretty much ALL day today so I was delayed getting into the office until about 9am, which left my co-workers rather restless, waiting impatiently for breakfast to arrive. All told, we killed about an hour chatting about nothing. I went back to my desk and pretended to work, but mostly just shuffled papers about and surfed the net.
My company is participating in the ChumCity Christmas Wish and matching all employee donations: for every toy that is donated, they will match it with a $20 donation, and for every food item, $2 will be donated. Each year, my colleagues and I contribute $20 each to a pot and then go out to Costco to buy food. I collected $240 earlier this week and went shopping during the lunch hour with some co-workers. We cruised the aisles, grazing on the samples (the 6 cheese pizza was tops on my list today) and stocked up on various canned goods, pastas, baby formula, etc. When we checked out, we warned the cashier that we had a budget to stick to....and boy were we close! We could have been on the Price is Right because our final bill was $240.60!! We joked about how we'd have to collect an extra nickel from everyone in the group.
We didn't do an actual count of how many individual items we bought because some were cases of 12 cans, others were 9 or 6 and there were shrink-wrapped packages of 6 or 9 or 24 boxes of dried goods like instant noodles. But if I were to guesstimate, there were probably about 250 items....so our combined donation yielded a return of about 300% to the charity drive.
We were talking, too, the other day about how we can make the most of our giving...and my friend had suggested buying toys for the toy drive in which part of the proceeds of its sale were earmarked for charity...we'd essentially be giving 3 times! The first time when we buy the toy, the second time when we donate it to toy drive, and the third time when the company matches it with the $20 donation!
The great thing is that these toys don't usually cost very much either...these ones at the HBC family of stores only cost $5.99, and all net proceeds go to health, wellness and educational programs in local communities! So, if you were going to spend, say, $40 on a Barbie, you could make your money go that much further by spending it on a $6 plush toy - particularly if your company has a policy of matching individual donations by $x. There are lots of other retaliers with similar programs...so it's a great opportunity to make the most of your gift.
Work today was pretty much a write-off. What did I do? Well. I was on Friday Snacks duty, so I stopped to pick up a dozen chocolate croissants, bagels and assorted cream cheese for my group. It rained pretty much ALL day today so I was delayed getting into the office until about 9am, which left my co-workers rather restless, waiting impatiently for breakfast to arrive. All told, we killed about an hour chatting about nothing. I went back to my desk and pretended to work, but mostly just shuffled papers about and surfed the net.
My company is participating in the ChumCity Christmas Wish and matching all employee donations: for every toy that is donated, they will match it with a $20 donation, and for every food item, $2 will be donated. Each year, my colleagues and I contribute $20 each to a pot and then go out to Costco to buy food. I collected $240 earlier this week and went shopping during the lunch hour with some co-workers. We cruised the aisles, grazing on the samples (the 6 cheese pizza was tops on my list today) and stocked up on various canned goods, pastas, baby formula, etc. When we checked out, we warned the cashier that we had a budget to stick to....and boy were we close! We could have been on the Price is Right because our final bill was $240.60!! We joked about how we'd have to collect an extra nickel from everyone in the group.
We didn't do an actual count of how many individual items we bought because some were cases of 12 cans, others were 9 or 6 and there were shrink-wrapped packages of 6 or 9 or 24 boxes of dried goods like instant noodles. But if I were to guesstimate, there were probably about 250 items....so our combined donation yielded a return of about 300% to the charity drive.
We were talking, too, the other day about how we can make the most of our giving...and my friend had suggested buying toys for the toy drive in which part of the proceeds of its sale were earmarked for charity...we'd essentially be giving 3 times! The first time when we buy the toy, the second time when we donate it to toy drive, and the third time when the company matches it with the $20 donation!
The great thing is that these toys don't usually cost very much either...these ones at the HBC family of stores only cost $5.99, and all net proceeds go to health, wellness and educational programs in local communities! So, if you were going to spend, say, $40 on a Barbie, you could make your money go that much further by spending it on a $6 plush toy - particularly if your company has a policy of matching individual donations by $x. There are lots of other retaliers with similar programs...so it's a great opportunity to make the most of your gift.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
