Sharing healing through sharing a meal

by | Feb 11, 2021 | Health and Safety, Volunteers

front cover and dedication to a cookbook

Threads of Life is fortunate to have so many loyal partners who are passionate about health and safety, and share our mission. I call these companies difference-makers. They make a difference in the lives of Threads of Life families, and I’m sure they also make a difference in their own employees’ lives. One of these partners is Dexterra Group. Late last year, Dexterra created a cookbook project as a fundraiser for Threads of Life. I’d like to share the introduction that Dexterra’s Executive Vice President, HSEQ Lee-Anne Lyon-Bartley wrote in the introduction to that cookbook.  I add my thanks to Holly Van Drine, Manager WCB Disability, who led the project; to Lee-Anne, and to all the employees at Dexterra who contribute to making a difference.

Let me tell you a story about how one person can make a difference.

Once upon a time, back in 2019, there was an office full of employees. Every so often employees at this office would bring food to share with each other. There was Anna in Finance, who often brought in baked goods, chocolates or cookies. You could always go over to the proposal team and count on Rae-Ann having chocolates stocked for sharing and many other examples of Tim Horton’s treats that would just show up on any given day.

Then there was Holly. She would go and pick up samosas to share in the office. Everyone looked forward to samosa day and often folks would ask Holly if they can contribute funds to the samosas. Of course Holly refused, but then a few months after Holly attended her first ever Threads of Life- Steps for Life walk in Toronto, she became passionate about helping this charity even more and an idea was sparked.

She went to the head of her team and asked if she could have a fundraiser at the office and the idea of selling the samosas to raise funds for Threads of life was thrust into reality. It was planned to coincide with Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which was a movement created to motivate people to support charities during the holiday season. Holly planned a wonderful spread that included lots of food and treats, other employees brought food to support the effort too and close to $500 was raised.

Fast forward to 2020: the pandemic has changed the office and forced people to work from home. They can no longer get together for another samosa fundraiser. Holly quickly said to herself “how can I still raise funds for Threads of Life even though we’re all separated?” She came up with this cookbook, and got people within the office and from other parts of the country to participate in the fundraiser. This year, she more than doubled the fundraising efforts and that’s in part thanks to you, the recipient of this cookbook.

This book is an example of what we can accomplish together regardless of the circumstances around us. It’s an example of the diversity that we proudly celebrate at the Dexterra Group and in our country, Canada. Although we can’t travel this year because of the pandemic, I hope this cook book provides a little travel for you as it contains recipes from around the world. And of course, we included some food safety information to prepare the foods safely.

Thanks Holly for your continued efforts supporting Threads of Life and thanks to the entire HSEQ team for helping to promote the fundraising drive.

Bon Appetit!

~Lee-Anne Lyon-Bartley,
Executive Vice President, HSEQ
Dexterra Group Inc.

Scott McKay
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