Guelph Chamber Choir releases new CD “Remember”

GUELPH, Ontario February 7, 2012 - The Guelph Chamber Choir, under the direction of Gerald Neufeld, is pleased to announce the release of its fifth recording, Remember. The official launch date is March 3, at the GCC concert at Harcourt Memorial United Church in Guelph.

Remember contains 15 tracks, including arrangements of well-known folk songs. As Neufeld writes in the CD’s notes, “Music is a potent medium for remembering our past, our joys and sorrows, and those we love. Songs marry poetry to music’s passion, thus conjuring a strong potion that takes us back in time to where we feel the thoughts of a bygone era.”

The GCC was thrilled to be joined by renowned folk singer, guitarist and composer James Gordon on this project. James performs his signature tune, Frobisher Bay, with the women of the choir, and he is backed up by the GCC men on the beloved Stan Rogers piece North West Passage, as well as Carrick Fergus, arranged by Mark Sirett. Also among the 15 tracks are works by Canadian composers Eleanor Daley (Paradise), Stephen Chatman (Remember), and Jeff Smallman (Prairie Greyhounds).

The choir is accompanied by Alison MacNeill on piano, who has been with the GCC for over twenty years, violinist Trevor Dick, clarinettist Gerald Stephenson and percussionist Ian Dickieson. Vocal soloists are from the choir and include mezzos Carolynne Godin and Janice Coles (both OYC alumnae and former Choirs Ontario board members) and bass Neil McLaren.

For a full listing of the tracks, plus audio samples, please visit the GCC website, www.guelphchamberchoir.ca

Remember is now available for $20 from GCC choir or board members or by contacting info@guelphchamberchoir.ca . Remember can also be downloaded through iTunes – follow the link from www.guelphchamberchoir.ca

Guelph’s Lakeside Church set to pay $1 million for Norfolk United

Downtown church sold Norfolk Street United Church in downtown Guelph has been conditionally sold for $1 million.

Guelph Mercury
by Rob O'Flanagan

GUELPH , Ontario, February 8, 2012 — One of Guelph’s oldest churches may soon have a new owner.

Norfolk Street United Church and Lakeside Church have reached an agreement of sale that will see Lakeside pay $1 million for the 156-year-old limestone structure at the corner of Cork and Norfolk streets in downtown Guelph. Norfolk Street United began as a congregation 175 years ago.

“We get to have a fantastic facility to do some great things in the city, and bring care to the inner city of Guelph,” said Dave Ralph, lead pastor of Lakeside Church, an independent, non-denominational Christian organization. It is located on Conservation Road, in Guelph-Eramosa, near Guelph Lake.

Officials involved in the deal say the price of sale was fair market value, and that the sale is a “win-win situation” for both parties.

“That is a fair price,” said Allan Knapp, council chair for Norfolk United. “We had an independent appraisal done which set the ballpark price, and we talked with architects and developers in town. We looked at options for the church, whether the best price would be based on the vacant land, commercial use or as a church. In every case, being used as a church gave us the best price.”

The agreement allows Norfolk’s roughly 200 parishioners to stay on for three years, continuing to use the church section of the complex for worship until the congregation is able to merge with another United Church in the city, Knapp said Wednesday.

He added that other than an upgrade to the boiler system, the building does not need major repairs.

“I would say I am very sure,” said Knapp, when asked how certain he was that the conditional deal will go through. “The key for us is that we can stay up to three years, and it continues to be a church, which for us is wonderful news.”

Once taking ownership, Lakeside will begin establishing Lakeside HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty Everywhere) House at the location. A community outreach facility, it will offer services for local people living in poverty.

Talk began to circulate last year that Lakeside Church might be interested in buying Norfolk United, which celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2011. The idea to establish Lakeside HOPE House was hatched over a year ago, and discussions began with Norfolk United in August, officials said.

Lakeside Church now has to raise the funds to purchase the downtown structure, and other conditions have to be met prior to the June 30 closing date on the sale. The sale has to be approved by upper levels of United Church governance, a detailed building inspection must be done, and a purchase and sale agreement has to be signed.

“I have full confidence in our community to raise the funds,” said Ralph. “I know our community. I know their passion and enthusiasm. We are all pretty comfortable that is going to be achievable. There is a strong sense of confidence on both sides that this is going to become a reality.”

Ralph said the primary purpose of Lakeside HOPE House will be to “pick up some of the gaps in poverty elimination needs” in the community, while avoiding duplication of existing services in that area. Lakeside will work closely with city and social services officials in crafting the services of HOPE House.

“I think long-term what we would want to see is, people who have tangible needs could get many of those needs met in a single location,” Ralph said, adding that current users of the building will be considered on a case-by-case basis as to what their future occupancy will be. There are certain spaces that Lakeside needs immediately and tenants of those spaces will have to move.

Ralph said Lakeside Church is also interested in exploring alternative uses for the church hall part of the structure, once Norfolk United’s congregation has moved on. He said it “will always remain an auditorium of some sort,” and might have a future as a small concert hall. Some form of partnership with the University of Guelph may also be explored.

“What we want to do is be good citizens of downtown Guelph and allow our facility to be used as part of being good citizens of downtown Guelph,” Ralph added.

The church began its religious life as a Methodist congregation back in 1836. The actual downtown church was built in 1856 and still holds the inscription “Wesleyan Methodist Church” above its front entrance. Prime Minister Lester Pearson’s father, Rev. Edwin Pearson, was a Methodist minister at the church between 1917 and 1921.

“We didn’t want to see the church turned into condos or other things,” said Knapp. Parts of the church are currently rented out to a number of organizations for a number of purposes. Alcoholics Anonymous uses it for meetings, and Lilliput Land Nursery School is located in the building.

There are two options for the proceeds from the sale, Knapp said. If the Norfolk United congregation is able to merge with another congregation locally, the money will be used by that new entity, with some possibly being donated to non-profit groups in the city. If a merger doesn’t take place, the funds would become general revenue for the United Church of Canada.

Knapp said the first option is preferable.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust...A Lasting Tribute for a Lifetime of Giving

Celebrating sixty years. From and for all generations of the Commonwealth Family

LONDON, February 5, 2012 /Canada NewsWire/ - Today marks the formal launch of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, on the 60th anniversary of the accession of the Queen to the throne.

The establishment of the Trust was originally announced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth, Australia in 2011. The Trust aims to celebrate HM The Queen's enormous contribution and unswerving dedication to the Commonwealth over the course of her 60 year reign.

Sir John Major, Chairman of the Trustee Board said,

"I am delighted and honoured to have been invited to Chair the Diamond Jubilee Trust.The purpose of the Trust is to raise funds throughout the Commonwealth, and then work with strategic partners to identify charitable projects that will enrich the lives and opportunities of all its citizens

- across generations and geographical boundaries
- in order to provide a lasting legacy for HM The Queen.

It is our hope that individuals, organisations and countries will all wish to contribute to the Trust, as a tangible and enduring way of honouring HM The Queen, and to demonstrate the enormous respect and affection in which she is held, not only within the Commonwealth family, but also the wider world."

The Trust aims to reflect the qualities that citizens respect and value in Her Majesty. It will identify investments in legacy projects which will have a transforming impact on the life of Commonwealth citizens. The Trust will aim in particular to invest in some projects which encourage generations to work together for the benefit of communities, and activities that bring Commonwealth citizens together across geographical boundaries.

The Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, also on the board of Trustees, said,

"Throughout sixty years of dedicated service and leadership as Head of the Commonwealth, The Queen has shown personal and unwavering commitment to all that the Commonwealth represents and holds dear - especially our shared values of democracy, development and diversity. The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust is an opportunity for Commonwealth citizens everywhere both to contribute and to be associated with initiatives that will ensure Her Majesty's commitment and service are celebrated in ways that are to the enduring benefit of our global Commonwealth family."

Details of some of the initial planned investments and partnerships will be announced in due course.

During the Jubilee year, individuals, groups, organisations and companies inside or outside the Commonwealth are invited to contribute to the Trust, as a lasting tribute to HM The Queen.

More details about the Trust, including a way to contribute, can be found at the Trust's website: http://www.jubileetribute.org

Notes:

...The Queen is Head of the Commonwealth which has 54 states and 2 billion people. She is The Queen of 16 of these Commonwealth countries, known as Commonwealth Realms.

...The Trust will be run and administered to ensure that every donation is used to the maximum benefit of commonwealth citizens and delivers results that make a real difference to people's lives. It will not establish a major new institution. It will work with established partner charities and organisations across the Commonwealth, both in the UK and elsewhere, to deliver iconic projects that are a fitting tribute to The Queen.

...As announced at CHOGM this may include tackling curable diseases, promoting all forms of education and culture and other Commonwealth priorities.

...The trustees are: The Rt Hon Sir John Major (Chairman), The Commonwealth Secretary General, The Rt Hon Lord Robertson, Professor Sir Mervyn King, The Rt Hon Sir Christopher Geidt & the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.

...Projects will be chosen by the Trustees, who will consult widely before reaching decisions

On Toque Tuesday, help 'put a (cheery red) cap on youth homelessness'!

NATIONAL, February 2, 2012 /Canada NewsWire/ - Raising the Roof's annual Toque Tuesday is on February 7. Across Canada, from dawn to dusk, volunteers from Intact Financial Corporation and community groups will take to the streets, shopping malls and transit hubs encouraging commuters to purchase a toasty-warm toque in support of homeless youth. This year's goal is to sell 50,000 toques across Canada!

The Toque Campaign brings together communities - big and small - in a collective effort to "put a cap" on youth homelessness in Canada. Coast-to-coast, an estimated 65,000 youth are without a place to call home.

Past campaign sales have allowed Raising the Roof to grant almost $3.3 million to 145 local community agencies serving the homeless across the country. Part of this year's proceeds will also help fund Raising the Roof's Youthworks initiative, focused on long-term solutions to youth homelessness. We thank and celebrate our 2012 National Toque Campaign partners, Intact Financial Corporation and Canadian Traffic Network.

The difference a toque makes…

...Every $10 toque sold supports real solutions. For example, one toque sale will cover the cost of a bus pass or some clothing for a youth who needs to attend an all-important job interview;

...10 toques will fund supportive housing for one youth for a week, so that he or she can get help to develop important life-skills and break away from street culture.

Purchase your toque on your way to/from work, from your local participating community agency OR on-line at www.raisingtheroof.org.

Looking for more reasons why you should purchase a toque? Check out our 'brilliant' TV public service announcements created for us pro bono by Leo Burnett Toronto.

Show your (virtual) support by 'toquing' your Facebook pic using the 'toque app' on our Facebook page.

About Raising the Roof
Raising the Roof is a national Canadian charity focused on long-term solutions to homelessness. We fund local, grass-roots agencies working to alleviate homelessness in their communities; build awareness among Canadians about the true nature of homelessness today and educate them about how to prevent it in the future; and build partnerships by giving people, corporations and organizations the opportunity to participate in solutions.

Reward homeless for finding homes

New study proposes using power of incentives to help keep people off of Calgary's streets

CALGARY, January 23, 2012 /Canada NewsWire/ - In a paper released today by The School of Public Policy, Professor Brendan O'Flaherty offers a straightforward method for fighting homelessness that contrasts many current programs already in place to deal with this important social issue.

"If you want people to be housed rather than homeless, reward them for being housed," O'Flaherty argues.

Specifically, O'Flaherty advocates the introduction of an Optimal Homelessness-Reducing Home Allowance (OHRHA), which would take the form of a flat amount rewarded to people for each night that they are not homeless.

What would differentiate OHRHA from existing social assistance programs would be its simplicity and purpose.

"Other housing allowances were designed with other goals in mind," the author writes. "The virtual exclusion of non-elderly single adults from these programs is pretty good evidence that they were not intended to reduce homelessness."

Programs like Alberta Works or provincial housing allowances impose special criteria that must be met in order to receive payments. O'Flaherty indicates that OHRHA would have only one rule: you receive payment if you are housed.

In terms of funding such a program, the author recommends imposing a new land value tax on Calgary property owners. He argues that the advantage of such a tax is that any costs would be absorbed by the positive impact of OHRHA on land prices. In fact, the tax would be proportional to land value increments.

The study can be found online by going to www.policyschool.ucalgary.ca/publications.

Thousands of lives and millions of dollars lost due to late response to food crisis in East Africa

Lessons learned can help prevent future disasters and save lives

OTTAWA, January 17, 2012 /Canada NewsWire/ - Thousands of needless deaths occurred and millions of extra dollars were spent because the international community failed to take decisive action on early warnings of a hunger crisis in East Africa, according to a new report by the international aid agencies Oxfam and Save the Children.

"This report is a timely reminder given that it comes ahead of global meetings at Davos and the African Union" said Nic Moyer, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Coalition. "The agencies that make up the Humanitarian Coalition are already raising the alarm about a looming food crisis that now threatens millions of people in West Africa. International donors must learn from past experience. Action must be taken before hunger turns into famine."

The report, A Dangerous Delay, says a culture of risk aversion caused a six month delay in the large-scale aid effort because humanitarian agencies and national governments were too slow to scale up their response to the crisis, and many government donors wanted proof of a humanitarian catastrophe before acting to prevent one.

Sophisticated early warning systems first forecast a likely emergency as early as August 2010 but the full-scale response was not launched until July 2011 when malnutrition rates in parts of the region had gone far beyond the emergency threshold and there was high profile media coverage of the crisis.

Save the Children and Oxfam say more funding for food emergencies should be sought and released as soon as the crisis signs are clear, rather than supporting large-scale emergency work only when hunger levels have reached tipping-point. By that time lives have already been lost and the cost of the response is much greater. The agencies call on governments to overhaul their response to food crises, as laid out in the Charter to End Extreme Hunger (http://hungercharter.org), a document that has already received backing from key international figures.

"Early action saves lives," said Robert Fox, Executive Director of Oxfam Canada. "It's irresponsible for governments to wait for the public to push them to act when they know the need and the risks months before the crisis makes headlines. Droughts happen when the rains fail. Hunger happens when governments fail - when they don't give enough support to small farmers and don't move fast enough to support families at risk."

"That a serious food crisis was developing was known months before TV crews were on the ground in the refugee camps," said Save the Children's CEO Patricia Erb. "Children don't have to face acute malnutrition because we know the steps that must be taken to avert this kind of disaster. First we need to improve early warning systems and second we need to empower the UN to release funds before crises turn into humanitarian catastrophes."

Although it is impossible to calculate exactly how many people died as a result of drought, the UK government estimates that as many as 100,000 lives were lost between April and August 2011, more than half of them children under the age of five. Today, Somalia remains the most acute food crisis in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people at risk.

Some early action did take place. But overall, the scale of crisis outstripped these efforts and late intervention cost more. For example, trucking five litres of water per day to 80,000 people for five months in Ethiopia costs more than $3 million, compared to $900,000 to prepare water sources in the same area before a drought occurs. Such a proactive approach would mean more lives saved and less money spent. It is an approach that should be embraced at a time when accountability, aid effectiveness and proven outcomes are the focus of governments around the world.

About the HUMANITARIAN COALITION

With a combined presence in more than 120 countries, members of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION work together to reduce unnecessary competition, better educate the public on humanitarian needs and reduce administrative costs. Uniting the forces of CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan Canada and Save the Children Canada, the HUMANITARIAN COALITION makes donating easy for Canadians.

Canadians donate more than 672,000 gift-filled shoe boxes to the world's hurting children

Operation Christmas Child donations in 2011 surpass 2010 donations by five per cent; online shoe box option helps those who missed collection deadline

CALGARY, January 18, 2012 /Canada NewsWire/ - Thank you Canada, you did it again! Canadians donated 672,274 shoe boxes packed with toys, hygiene items, and school supplies during the 2011 Operation Christmas Child shoe box campaign that ended recently. That's five per cent more than the 2010 total of 640,714 boxes.

Operation Christmas Child staff, volunteers and partners have already begun distributing the 2011 shoe boxes in the developing world. During the next few weeks, children in Haiti, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Guatemala, and Venezuela will be receiving shoe boxes packed by caring Canadians.

"We're thrilled to be sending over 672,000 lovingly-packed shoe boxes of gifts to children around the world who need them most," said Randy Crosson, director of Operation Christmas Child Canada, a program of international Christian relief and development organization Samaritan's Purse Canada.

"Each shoe box is an opportunity to show hurting children they are loved by God and by us, and the generosity of Canadians will once again bless children who likely have never before received a gift."

Several thousand Canadians chose to pack their shoe boxes online this year. They took advantage of Operation Christmas Child's option that enables visitors to the website to choose shoe box gift items, write a personal note, add a photo, and make a donation - all of it online.

This option is available year-round for those who - for health reasons, scheduling challenges, or limited access to transportation - aren't able to shop for gifts and pack shoe boxes in the traditional way: ( http://samaritanspurse.ca/Operation-Christmas-Child/Virtual-Shoe-Box-Introduction.aspx).

All shoe boxes packed online in 2011, plus all shoe boxes from Quebec in 2011, are part of a 75,000- box commitment to Haiti, where the need for hope and a reminder of God's love remains very strong after a deadly earthquake and cholera epidemic in 2010.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand-delivered more than 94 million shoe box gifts to children in over 130 countries hurt by war, poverty, natural disaster, disease, and famine.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has been a vital project of Samaritan's Purse - a Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.

The shoe box is just the beginning, because Operation Christmas Child is creating opportunities for Samaritan's Purse to provide other help to children, their families, and their communities through safe drinking water, literacy and job skills initiatives, feeding programs, medical care, and more.