When Osob Adus learned that she had been nominated for Citizen of the Year for this year’s Burlington’s Best Awards, she was completely taken aback. “My very first response was just humility. It was never the intention of my work to be nominated for such things. I just did it to make a difference,” she says.

That singular belief that one person can make a difference has motivated Adus to volunteer for years. The 45-year-old mother of four moved to Burlington with her family about 20 years ago and she has been active in community events ever since. Part of her impact has included helping people overcome cultural barriers. As a member of the Muslim community, that’s important to her and it’s why she pushed for women-only swim times at the city pools which allows them privacy during swims. Her proudest achievement is the work she’s done for the Halton Mosque on Fairview Street.

Over the last seven years, she has devoted herself to such initiatives as a fundraising project to build a playground on the mosque property. The playground is open to members of the Mosque as well as the neighbourhood. Dedication to help the community is a common thread found in every one of the 30 nominees in this year’s Burlington’s Best awards. There are eight categories: Citizen of the Year, Junior Citizen of the Year, Senior Person of the Year, Environmental Award, Arts Person of the Year, Community Service Award, Heritage Award and Accessibility Award.

The awards were set up to recognize people who have demonstrated “energetic and exemplary volunteer service” to the community and whose achievements went above and beyond their jobs. 

Carter Creechan is one of five nominees for Junior Citizen of the Year. The 16-year-old student is in grade 11 at Robert Bateman High School and is part of the Tech Crew at Bateman and Frontenac Public School. He is also a member of the school board’s student senate, and is on the Accessibility Committee and Bateman’s Student Council.

Creechan’s task in Tech Crew involves setting up the sound and lighting for all shows at the school. But his proudest achievement was the presentation he made to the school board on Bateman’s facilities, which was part of the school closure review process last year. “The whole delegation was out of my comfort zone and, at the time, it was quite intimidating. I felt like I made quite the difference in a lot of people’s minds the night of that delegation,”
he says.

The Community Service Award garnered the most entries with 12 nominees, including Carol Baldwin, who was nominated for volunteering at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre. “It was a surprise,” she says. Baldwin works as cashier at the centre’s bistro once a week and fills in for people who are sick or on vacation. Like many who volunteer, she enjoys the social aspect. “I have fun bantering back and forth with many of the regulars and I think the interaction is good for me, as well as for them,” notes Baldwin.

Gloria Reid is the only nominee who doesn’t have to wait to find out if she won. She’s president of the board of directors for Burlington Green, a non-profit group with a mission to protect the environment and create a healthier, more environmentally responsible city, and she is the only person nominated in the Environmental Award category.

Oakville also awards people who have made a special effort to make their community better. This year’s Oakville Community Spirit Awards include 42 nominees in seven categories. The winners will be announced on June 11th at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre. “The awards are a great way to celebrate volunteerism and honour community champions,” says awards chair Nancy Beddoe. Tickets to the event can be purchased on the Town of Oaville’s website. 

It’s because of people like these – and anyone who does even the smallest gesture to better their community – that Halton is such a wonderful place to live.

by Denise Davy

Local Links

City of Burlington
burlington.ca

Town of Oakville
oakville.ca

If you told Monika Schaefer her life had gone to pot, she would agree. That’s pot, as in pottery, and Monika is not only a dedicated potter but she has helped many others enjoy the craft. Since joining the Burlington Potter’s Guild 20 years ago, she has been on the executive, set up the website (which she also manages), co-ordinated sales for potters at the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) and run electric kiln training workshops. She’s also the Guild’s sales chair. And, of course, she makes pots, lot of them, as well as other enchanting items, like birdbaths and garden ornaments. “I am lovingly referred to as the GOAT which means Goddess Of All Things,” says Schaefer, laughing.

She’s one of the many potters who have worked quietly behind the scenes to keep the Burlington Potter’s Guild alive and thriving. The Guild was formed in January 1969 when a small group of experienced potters came together to celebrate their art and, within ten years, they had 100 members, 18 wheels, two kilns and were offering some 27 classes. The AGB is a great base for them and is also home to the largest contemporary ceramic art collection in Canada, as well as home to several other Guilds.

The Guild’s goal is to provide a welcoming and learning environment for members to further their craft. Members meet monthly, bring in guest speakers and arrange two sales per year. Then there’s the social aspect. “What I like about the Guild is that it is very welcoming and people are willing to share experiences, tips and techniques, no matter what your experience level,” Schaefer states.

Many members, including Schaefer, joined as a beginner after taking a class at the AGB. Now she teaches. After all these years, she’s never lost her love of the clay craft. “I love how it feels in my hands, especially when it’s at the leather hard stage and at that point it can be carved into. I also love the Christmas morning like surprise every time I open the kiln and see how that load has turned out,” she says.

Toss your worries aside and try your hand at throwing some clay on a pottery wheel to see what you can create. Fire up the kiln and fire up your imagination.

Benefits of Pottery

It’s messy, it’s creative and making pottery is also said to have health benefits,
including the following:

It’s a chance to practice mindfulness.
You only focus on your creation rather than worries outside of the studio.
Focusing on the pottery helps the mind relax, which transitions to all aspects of life.

It helps you express your creativity and
it is something people of all ages can participate in.

The act of making pottery is gentle yet
it helps to strengthen the hands, wrists and arms.

It’s immensely fun for everyone, especially kids.
When kids get to squish, roll and manipulate the clay
it gives them freedom to express themselves and
they get a kick out of how the clay feels in their hands.

Over time, working with clay gives children
more precise motor control and hand-eye co-ordination.

It captures memories.
Archaeological digs recover age-old pottery and offer
clues to civilizations past. While your work may not one day end up
in a museum,seeing your work on display instills pride and
serves as a reminder of your accomplishments.

by Denise Davy

Local Link

Burlington Potter’s Guild
burlingtonpottersguild.com

They were a company with sky-high dreams looking for ways to grow. In a short time, The Sky Guys, an Oakville-based drone technology company, had become leaders in aerial photography and video services by using state-of-the-art drone technology. Their clients included everyone from real estate companies who hired them to capture property photos to oil and gas firms who hired their UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to acquire data and imagery from the air.

Last fall, The Sky Guys turned to Haltech for advice on how to grow their business. The Haltech Regional Innovation Centre, known better as Haltech, is a non-profit organization in Burlington funded by the Ontario government to help tech-based start-ups. Their mission is to support businesses by providing connections, potential clients, and new ideas and ways to launch products. Kevin Ming, interim director of operations, said they offer three basic services: advice from successful entrepreneurs who help them develop their business, marketing advice, and services to connect companies to resources and potential customers. “When people think of tech start ups, they tend to think of Toronto and they don’t realize there is a lot of activity in Halton,” says Ming. “The value in providing what we do here is that it will enable and foster growth within the innovation culture here.”

Since starting in 2012, Haltech has worked with close to 700 tech-based companies, including medical technology, apps and software. Ming adds that the group went through a transformation and rebranding in 2015 and last year alone helped some 130 companies. The majority of their clients – around 70 per cent – are from within Halton and the other 30 per cent come from areas around Toronto and Hamilton. Surprisingly, there’s no charge for their work, which includes having access to a full team of advisors, including Ming, and entrepreneurs who have been successful and want to give back to the community. They have a core team of four and, combined with their advisor base, there are 15.

When The Sky Guys approached Haltech last year, they were already well established and were using drones to do inspections of flare stacks, pipelines, cell towers and unmanned inspections of oil and gas sites. They also create full 3D models of land and infrastructure for surveying.

Ming says even though The Sky Guys were already a successful business, Haltech was still able to help and provided advisory support in the form of connections with investors, industry collaborators, government funding agencies and national innovation awards. “A lot of the work we did helping them was connecting them with potential clients and customers from a lot bigger companies,” says Ming. A few months ago, because of the connections from Haltech, The Sky Guys secured a contract with the Ministry of Transportation to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled drones solution to monitor the HOV lanes on Ontario’s 400-series highways.

The Emerson Suite, another Oakville-based startup, reached out to Haltech last spring to help boost sales. The company’s mission is to help leaders or managers excel by providing them with the tools they need. They use a web-based mobile app, which shows managers how to establish and achieve objectives. After working with a Haltech Entrepreneur-In-Residence, they made changes to their business model and their customer focus.

In March, Haltech was written up in Forbes and was referred to as the “secret sauce” behind Ontario’s innovation growth. Haltech also offers learning workshops and free community events at their office at 5500 North Service Road in Burlington.

by Denise Davy

Look Local

Haltech, Burlington
haltech.ca

The Sky Guys, Oakville
theskyguys.ca

The Emerson Suite, Oakville
emersonsuite.com

It started with a bare and lonely hospital room, 10 years ago. While visiting a friend in the Complex Care unit at London’s Parkwood Hospital around Christmas, Lisette Kingo asked how many patients had to remain in the facility over the holiday.

What she learned about one bedridden resident left her shocked and shaken. “They told me he had no family members to speak of, and basically hadn’t left not only the hospital, but his room, for many years,” she says. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It seemed inconceivable.”

That encounter led directly to Kingo creating The Angel Project, a charity designed to assist patients who will often spend decades in hospitals, never to return to a real home again. Their circumstances can range from accident victims with spinal cord or brain injuries, to those suffering from MS and ALS.

Regardless of their histories, all have been left without the tools and finances to fend for themselves, either because they have no families, their families cannot afford the expenses, or, in the worst case scenarios, families have simply walked away from the burden of responsibility. “Basically many of these patients have been forgotten. They are discarded people,” says Kingo. “They are in Complex Care units, often for decades because they simply have nowhere else to go. When I tell this to people, they either can’t believe there’s a program like The Angel Project, or they can’t believe there’s a need for it. And unfortunately, there definitely is.”

Most people don’t realize that hospitals do not provide basic hygiene necessities for long-term Complex Care patients such as shaving cream, soap, deodorant or shampoo, and there are no funds set aside for recreational activities, haircuts or even a cup of coffee.

The Angel Project’s vital Slush Fund provides money for the latter, and their ongoing fundraising efforts help with the rest, but the organization does much more than that. “We work to provide money for co-payments on vital pieces of equipment that can often mean the difference between a patient being trapped in silence, or finding a voice to communicate with those around them,” says Kingo, noting that they have raised funds for co-payments of up to $19,000 in the past.

The charity also raises funds for outings for patients who would never be able to leave the hospital on their own. It also provides gifts at Christmas and even clothing for those who have none. “There was one young man with a spinal injury who basically lived in a hospital gown because there was no family to buy him clothing,” says Kingo. Heartbreaking stories such as this are just a few of the reasons why this organization’s work is so imperative.

Funds also assist in at least one outing per eligible patient per year, and when possible they assist with the purchase of items such as wheelchairs, voice boxes and speech computers, and even simple comforts such as stuffed animals, soft blankets or gifts at Christmas.

The charity prides itself on being one of the very few organizations that operate with minimal overhead, run by a volunteer team and a board of directors. All money raised goes directly to patients at the Complex Care Unit at both the Joseph Brant and Parkwood hospitals. For personal stories and videos from those directly affected by the project, visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/TheAngelProject.

Just a few of the items The Angel Project has raised funds for to date include approximately seven customized wheelchairs, iPads with retina displays, SMART boards for patient use, hundreds of hand-made quilts, chair lifts, outdoor gardens, BEPAP machines, TVs and DVD players, stroke walkers and treadmills.

While some of these items can cost more than $10,000, in the end, says Kingo, it’s often the little things that make the biggest difference, providing dignity, a sense of worth and purpose to those in need. “We try to give a voice to the voiceless,” she says. “These patients often can’t speak for themselves, so we speak for them.”

by Alison Dempsey

Local Link

The Angel Project
theangelproject.ca