Friends of We Care celebrates 25 years

By Mike Deibert

TORONTO-When 1,000 people gathered at the Toronto Congress last month for the Friends of We Care Gala, they celebrated the 25th anniversary of the charity that has raised almost $13 million over the years to send more than 30,000 children with disabilities to Easter Seals summer camps across Canada.

With its office in Ontario, the volunteer group has organizers working for it in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

Its members come from all pars of the foodservice industry: manufacturers, distributors, operators, media, brokers, management and marketing companies, and other related businesses.

Individuals who have made special contributions were recognized with awards at the gala.

The Gary Wright Humanitarian Award went to Hugh Kelly, senior vice-president of information technology and chief information officer at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. An avid golfer, Wright was encouraged to join We Care by colleagues at the LCBO, and he became chair of the annual LCBO fundraising golf event. He has worked with his assistant Anna Leung to organize volunteers to raise more than $750,000 with golf tournaments.

Dave Wilcox, who was Kelly's colleague at the LCBO, received the Gary Wright Humanitarian award Posthumously-he died of cancer last fall. In his 15 years of involvement with We Care, his fundraising efforts included wine tastings and food auctions at his cottage. Even after his death, the fundraising continues, with donations from his curling and martial arts clubs in his memory.

Another posthumous honour, the We Care Hall of Fame Award, went to Reg Lambert who died in March last year. Lambert immigrated to Canada from his native South Africa in 1962, taking an accounting job in Labrador. After seven years he came to Ontario. He worked for Henney Penny and Millard Restaurant Equipment before becoming executive director of the R.E.D. Group as excutive director.

Eight years later, in 1990, he was recruited by a new equipment-buying group, E.S.I. (Equipment and Supplies International) as director of marketing. He built a reputation for fair dealing and was known as a giant in the equipment sector of the foodservice industry.

The Corporate Friend of We Care Award went to Morgan Scott Partnership, a Bunzl division. It has been supporting We Care since 1997. When it was acquired in July 2006 by the global firm Bunzl Distribution, the CEO of Bunzl Distribution North America agreed without hesitation to continue supporting We Care.