February 15, 2007
Ottawa Canada Post was the number one contributor to the 2006 Ottawa-Carleton United Way campaign. The 4,700 employees at Head Office, the Ottawa Mail Processing Plant and the 13 letter carrier depots exceeded their goal of $400,000 and donated $548,122 to the United Way. The employees raised $381,000 for the campaign in 2005.
"Number One is absolutely appropriate, because that's the perfect way to rank the generosity of our people," said Anthony Wilson-Smith, vice-president of Communications and chairman of the United Way campaign for Canada Post. "This also speaks to the creativity and dedication of our employees who find unique ways to get people involved and support the campaign."
Participation in the campaign was 82 per cent and employee contributions totalled $347,000. Some of the fun events organized to generate money for the United Way campaign included: a kick-off barbeque ($5,380), silent auction ($16,400), "search for the stars" variety show ($2,700), general store ($9,800), hockey and raffle tickets ($3,300).
"Canada Post is one of the few companies in Canada that can quite legitimately claim to be a part of the lives of all Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast," said Wilson-Smith. "And this kind of effort shows that we don't just do business in our community we engage and invest in it for the good of everyone."
Chief Vince Bevan, Chairman of the 2006 Ottawa-Carleton United Way campaign said, "I had the opportunity to participate in a number of events at Canada Post during their campaign, and I was particularly struck by the spirit and enthusiasm of the employees - and the deep sense of pride they have in the contribution they are making to their community. The success of this campaign demonstrated beautifully the power of people at all levels working together to achieve a common goal, and I applaud and thank Moya Greene, Tony Wilson-Smith and everyone at Canada Post for this tremendous result."
Last year marks the 15th consecutive year that Canada Post has received the "Thanks-A-Million" award. The award is presented to organizations that have raised over $1 million nationwide.
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