Bank of Montreal
The Bank of Montreal's Commercial Products division visited The Good Neighbours' Club on a United Way-arranged Days of Caring tour late in 2010, and fell in love with our mission.
As part of their corporate citizenship, Commercial Products, located on the 14th floor of the BMO building at 55 Bloor Street West, holds pizza lunches in support of worthy causes. This fall our own David Bruce, Director of Human Resources and Administration, and Nerysa Devon, our Recreational Therapist, crashed the party, giving away t-shirts and brochures and talking up the Club to busy employees.
As a result, these good neighbours of ours returned with a cheque for $2,300! Lauro Monteiro, Director of Operations, immediately purchased a new commercial-grade coffee maker, one that will keep the java flowing for our members all day long, 365 days a year.
BMO Commercial Products also invited David Bruce and Ray Burgess to their 2012 United Way campaign kick-off at the Institute for Learning, and sent a limousine to pick them up, creating quite a stir at 170 Jarvis Street!
BMO Capital Markets also got in on the action, and in a big way. Once again having been inspired by a United Way agency tour, Aine O'Flynn rallied the troops, asking for donations from her colleagues and setting a target of $2,000 to purchase badly-needed jeans, hoodies, underwear, and other clothing items for our members.
She and colleague Laura Heuff were shocked to find that the response was fully double what they had expected: within hours they had raised $4,000 in cash and commodities! $2,200 in clothing was immediately purchased, and a further $1,800 was earmarked for winter footwear, bought at-cost through an employee's personal connection to a Canadian manufacturer.
The generosity of BMO's Capital Markets division created quite a stir around the Club, and around the neighbourhood: Christmas had come early--and not a day too soon--for our good neighbours.