I was born into a family of dedicated volunteers. Service to community – whether door-to-door canvasing for charity, sitting on regional or national boards of directors or volunteering at events – has been a family value that I have been proud to continue.
Realizing the impact that storytelling has on a community, I took my skills and experience to the charitable sector, in both marketing and communications roles and development and fundraising positions. From developing innovative multichannel fundraising campaigns to writing compelling cases for support to highlighting stories of impact to donors, I use innovative communications to better our communities.
The following is a sample of work from a project for the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa (now BGC Ottawa) which highlighted the young members of the organization. This project was completed by my marketing and communications firm, FrontSide.
" I hope in the future I can help kids the way I was helped as a kid. I was very shy and it was hard for me to make new friends. Then sports came into my life and it became a lot easier when there was no language barrier, no personal issues. Sports kind of forced you into working with people. Once you join a sport or start going to a Clubhouse, it really starts building relationships, not just for the team season, but for the future. There’s a lot of people I started playing basketball with that I’m still hanging around with today. " - Cody, age 17
"I'm going into grade two. The best thing about grade one was getting to do all my homework with my friends." - Asmahan, age 7
"My goal is to see where basketball can take me. I’m not sure if that’s staying in Ottawa or leaving. I’d love to get the best education possible through basketball. I don’t know what I want to study. My dad tells me he wants me to become a molecular biologist. I had no idea what that was until I looked it up. I like science though so something science-y for sure." - Kevin, age 16
"I love dancing–not really breakdancing but maybe a bit of pop-lock. I like pop music and hiphop but not French hip hop. I like to hear it in English even though I speak mostly French. When I’m older, I want to be a nurse, maybe at an emergency room. I think I’ll stay in Ottawa. My family’s here. It’s home." - Gloria, age 12
"I’m in grade nine but I already know what I want to do: I want to be a neurologist and work at CHEO. I’m epileptic and the staff at CHEO taught me all about it and how epilepsy works and I got more interested in it. I told myself I wanted to be like them." - Yasmin, age 15
"I have an older sister. I like being the youngest in the family because I get lots of attention." - Natty, age 10