Posted on by Deborah Jones
Deborah Jones, Promoting The Food & Beverage Biz, Lead By Example - United Way, T2B, Fastsigns, Here We Grow Again - Welcome to Biz X Shelley Oswald, The Parenting Biz, Easter Seals To Host Webathon
01
Mar

Lead By Example – United Way, T2B, Fastsigns

As you can see by our front cover, the theme of this issue is leadership. Whether its children eight to 18 years of age hoping to become budding filmmakers by attending the Film Camp for Kids & Youth; high school students building robots like the Villanova WiredCats FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Team 5885 or millennials in the workforce, everyone of us — no matter what your age is — can be inspired to take the lead after reading our profiled stories!

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FASTSIGNS of Windsor’s (left) Jackie Raymond and Donna Bilodeau present their 2017 “Celebration of Giving” campaign donation to Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin (centre), Director of Development at The Downtown Mission of Windsor.

One such organization building leaders — Leadership Windsor/Essex, a program of the United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County — is ready to honour the recipients of their “40 Leaders Under 40” Awards at an event in late March. As proud co-sponsors of this awards ceremony, in our cover story we introduce you to these young, outstanding individuals, who are not only leaders in their professions, but also give back to their community in meaningful ways.

We can all learn something from each of them, especially on doing your part to make the area you live and work, a better place. When you and your business support charity organizations and worthy causes, others want to support your business and help you succeed. It is a win-win situation all the way around!

As you will read in our Hot Shots column on the recent Transition To Betterness gala, there are some pretty big donations coming in from individuals and their associated companies. But every little bit helps financially (or even volunteering your time to a good cause). If we all do what we can, what a great world it would be!

Let’s take local FASTSIGNS franchisees Donna Bilodeau and Jackie Raymond for example. They operate their sign, graphics and visual communications company out of a shop at 2591 Howard Avenue in Windsor (FastSigns.com/658).

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FASTSIGNS of Windsor’s (left) Jackie Raymond and Donna Bilodeau present their 2017 “Celebration of Giving” campaign donation to Paul Lauzon, Windsor Veterans Memorial Services Committee Member.

In celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary, as well as the City of Windsor’s 125th anniversary, these two entrepreneurs pledged to donate a portion of every sale in 2017 during their “Celebration of Giving” campaign to the Windsor Veterans Memorial Services Committee and the Downtown Mission of Windsor. In total, they raised close to $1,500 ($741 each).

“Congratulations to FASTSIGNS of Windsor for having the foresight in thinking of two of the areas of our community where people are most vulnerable for their ‘Celebration of Giving’ campaign — our veterans and the homeless and hungry,” says Paul Lauzon, Windsor Veterans Memorial Services Committee member. “100 percent of all funds donated go to the veterans. We help veterans assimilate back into our community. We also honour our veterans by attending over 150 funerals per year and through other Memorial Services.” (See: WindsorVeteransMemorial.com)

Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin, Director of Development at The Downtown Mission of Windsor adds: “With the generosity of FASTSIGNS, we are able to continue serving those who need a hot meal, a warm bed, shelter from the cold, solace from despair or hope for a better tomorrow.” (learn more about this organization here: DowntownMission.com).

Thank you Donna and Jackie for giving back to our community! While this is just one story out on how generous Windsorites can be (and there are plenty more!), I hope it inspires you to become a community leader as well.

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Deborah Jones

Deborah Jones – Publisher of Biz X Magazine Deborah Jones graduated from the University of Windsor with an Honours Degree in Communication Studies and was employed at two other local magazines shortly after for a few years learning all she could about writing, advertising, public relations and more. She made the jump in 1998 to go out on her own to publish Biz X magazine and has worked in the publishing industry since 1990. In 2007, she earned the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award from the Windsor & District Chamber of Commerce. To date, she is the ONLY woman so far to receive this award. In 2013, she received one of the first “Windsor Women of the Year” awards from the Ladies Exclusive Alliance. Her most recent achievement is the 2023 Media Award from the Windsor Essex Chapter of the Kidney Foundation of Canada. Deborah is proud to live in Windsor and truly cares about each and every business and strives to make Windsor Essex the best place to live, work and play.