Thank you for your support!

James Bay Community Project

By Lisa Gleinzer     

We spend a lot of time here at JBCP saying "thank you" and yet, somehow, those words don't always express how much we appreciate the community.

As we start the New Year here at JBCP, we have had many changes, both big and small, with the biggest change being in our staffing. Catriona Campbell, JBCP's long-time coordinator of volunteers and community programs, left JBCP on December 13th. As a community, we thank her for the over 14 years of service she provided and for her time as a board member. A lovely goodbye celebration was held prior to her last day - thank you to all the hands that helped with the party and to the members of the community who attended the event.

After 5 years as the seniors outreach worker here, I'm very excited to move into the coordinator of volunteers and community programs position. I thank the organization for having the faith in me to carry out this new role. And, I thank my former seniors outreach clients for teaching me so much and allowing me to work with them. I also want to thank Catriona for her support of my taking on this new position. My hope is to continue to provide meaningful volunteer opportunities to a wide range of people, to create innovative programming along with the other members of the JBCP team and to continue many JBCP traditions while introducing new ideas as well.

My departure from the seniors outreach worker position means we welcome new JBCP staff member, Noriko Oka, who will take over the seniors outreach role. Noriko comes to us with an extensive background working with seniors in the non-profit sector. She'll be working Monday - Friday from 12 noon to 4 pm, so please feel free to stop by and say hello.

We celebrated a wonderful holiday season at the Project and have many people to thank for their thoughtful and helpful donations - thank you to all the members of the public, JBCP participants and volunteers who gave so generously to us. We'd also like to thank the residents of the Aria, James Bay Pharmasave, Amica at Somerset House, Church of Truth, Global Village, and the Ministry of Citizens Services for their generous contributions. Last but definitely not least, thank you to all the volunteers who stuffed and delivered hampers, gave us donations, cooked Christmas meals and turkeys, prepped and primped, brought in soup, helped with decorating and generally made our holiday season so meaningful and memorable. Thank you for the goodies and cards and your words of thanks, which mean so much to us.

It often crosses our minds, how can we adequately say thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who give their time to make our centre run? How can we best show our appreciation to the person who thinks of us when donating extra items or clothing that they no longer wear, or a knife to replace one in our kitchen that has seen better days?  How do we thank the person who donates their hard earned money? We say thank you, but we wonder....does the person feel adequately appreciated. We recognize that it's always a choice to walk through our doors, to give donations, to volunteer precious time here, and we are so thankful.