A Truly United Way

Imagine…a truly United Way!

John Lennon would be proud. As the Hamilton Spectator reported, the community of Burlington and Greater Hamilton United Way 2011 Campaign celebrated raising more than $6.9 million dollars, revealed at the Bulldogs Game (which they won over the St. John’s Ice Caps!) Friday night at Copps Coliseum. Through the efforts of thousands of volunteers and thanks to the generosity and compassion of our citizens, this United Way has raised $248 million since its beginning 84 years ago. No other charitable organization anywhere consistently raises millions of dollars every year.

One comment I’ve heard over and over during my term as Hamilton Campaign Chair is, “I had no idea that was a United Way funded agency”. That has been “Big Brothers and Big Sisters”, “Kiwanis Boys and Girls Clubs”, the “V.O.N.”, “Meals on Wheels”, and the list is 133 names long. By sharing the stories of just who the United Way is and the people it touches, we rely on media organizations like the Hamilton Spectator to open eyes and hearts to the good work…the essential work… its 73 agencies do everyday, year after year.

These are, to use an expression we hear all too often theses days, tough economic times. As our tax dollars fall short of meeting demand for essential services, the United Way Campaign must compete with multiple fund raising efforts…all with needs just as pressing.

But what if we could work in partnership, to keep people out of food banks, out of shelters, out of hospital emergency rooms, out of acute care beds, out of the correctional system, and happy, healthy and productive in their own homes. That figure works out to one in 3 of us. Think of the dollars we could save and re-channel collectively, preventively.

No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man… imagine all the people sharing all the world. Like John Lennon said, you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one. My deepest gratitude is to everyone, every individual donor, every corporate and community leader who joined our cause. My dream is to open the eyes and hearts of those who have yet to see the incredible difference they can make. I hope someday you'll join us and our community can live as one.

Connie Smith,

Hamilton Chair,

2011 United Way Campaign

Burlington and Greater Hamilton

I Was No Suri Cruise but....

"I Was No Suri Cruise But I Loved My High Heels Too!"

It was one of my earliest memories although the gift at the heart of this story came the Christmas before...

Those stairs seemed so-o-o-o tall and steep and endless, especially for a five year old who was small for her age to begin with.

We lived in the top two floors of a duplex on Mountain Avenue. It was an old house, even back then. My "Nan" lived on the ground floor. My younger sister and I shared a bedroom in the attic.

That Christmas, Santa delivered my "Sally Ann" doll as promised and after the presents were opened, I recall the thought occurring to me in a flash. After all, when you choose to come into this world on such an auspicious day as Christmas, the birthday, even for the person in question, often takes a back seat to the more famous Christmas baby, at least for the first few hours of the day. So when that realization struck me, off I dashed, up those daunting stairs, first to the halfway landing, a pause, catch my breath then up the rest into our bedroom.

I must have carefully stashed them under the bed or in a closet, for there they were, just as I had left them: my red, sparkly, pretend high heels. So beautiful! So grown up! But alas, up until that very day, even though a child's size, they were way too big for my teeny four-year-old feet. "Surely they must fit me NOW!" I wriggled my toes under the two silver elastic straps as fast as I could, certain that since I was now FIVE, my dumb, puny feet would have grown enough for those plastic resin beauties to fit like Cinderella's glass slipper.....?!

...THEY WERE STILL TOO BIG! Yet down those stairs I carefully trudged, one at a time, and unsteadily into the loving arms of my sympathetic and understanding parents. With one look at "Sally Ann though", my footwear cares soon drifted away and I can honestly say I don't remember what happened to those red shoes.

That Christmas I learned that one year is just a blink in time, a "tap of the toe" in the grand score of things. And further that sometimes, in fact more often than not, things you want the most in life take time and can't be rushed. Time moved painfully slow back then. In fact I was in high school before my feet grew into a woman's size. Now, so many high heels later, my feet ache for flats and flip flops and time flies.

A Distinction-One Difficult Year Later

It's been 12 months since being honoured as an inductee into the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction. ...an incredible experience as the new 2011 inductees now know. At the time, I was embarking on the second season of a brand new TV series, "Always good News". Two years after a traumatic end to 32 years as an anchor/reporter/producer with CHCH Hamilton, I was re-invented and re-energized. The media business has one year later been tossing me about again...yes, my good friend singer/songwriter John Ellison reminds me it's time for a new opportunity ...but it's easy to nosedive into a place I don't want to be. So tonight I'm reliving that evening that marked one of the highlights of my career if not my life. Sunni Genesco was M.C.....

Good evening…thank you Sunni…I’m so used to doing what Sunni does, keeping the evening moving along, introducing the special guests….that I’m feeling quite overwhelmed to be in this part of the agenda.

But Mark{Chamberlain}, Alan{McPherson}, Bob {Morrow}, Steve {Smith} and Dan {McLean}….. it is an honour to sit at the same table with you… and Dan I knew we’d be back together one day. Now we’ll be hanging around forever!

… thank you Gallery of Distinction and my nominator and former Mohawk classmate Jim Slomka who knew enough back then to move into advertising.

I don’t think it’s until you’re well into adulthood that you starting about why you do what you do and how you end up where you are in life.

There was a best selling novel called the Celestine Prophesy…enlightenment…no such thing as coincidences….situations we find ourselves in, opportunities that present themselves, people who come into our lives…are all guideposts in our life journey..

Like our parents. I was small for my age…school was daunting…everyone was bigger but my parents helped me find my voice…writing that first speech … my Dad correcting my grammar… my Mom sitting in the front row more nervous than I was… encouraging me to do well, to have a career, to be independent.

My 2 sisters and family have been anchors in my life while I was being an anchor to everyone else.

Our teachers:..Mrs. Wray taught me the power of words, Mr. Bateman: how to see the beauty all around us… Mrs. Cranfield : that even the guys could still be cool and speak French…with an accent. Norm Marshall …gave me confidence in front of that microphone. Hey kid, he’d say… you can do it….

They all came back in my life decades later with stories I would tell…Jennifer Wray and her amazing sister Elizabeth and her Concerts of Hope, Margaret Ann Cranfield and irrepressable Knot a Breast Dragon Boaters…and Norm, working together on the six o’clock news. Coincidenses? I don’t think so.

There are all the people who hire us and fire us….
Mrs. Carson gave me my first job at the Red and White grocery store and taught me the customer is always right...

Con Stevenson at CKOC taught me how to supply the night DJ’s with elastics to hold their hair back while they read my newscasts,



Bob MacIntyre at CKVR
taught me to be careful driving to Penetanguishene and back in a blizzard to shoot my own story..in a Hornet!

Dick Grey trusted the advice of another old classmate Stan Keyes and hired me at CHCH. John Best had the guts to put a woman on the anchor desk beside Dan …

Tom Cherington taught me to ask tough questions but treat people with dignity…all guideposts.

Half way through my career, another signpost jumped in front of me and changed my life forever. …my greatest fan…just ask any of the cashiers at Fortino’s who were at the receiving end of his toddler interrogations: Do you know who my Mommy is???? But like my Cal, our kids teach us how to nurture and make us so proud.

My life and work partner, is my constant guide….I call him Australia’s gift to Canadian broadcasting and this Canadian broadcaster: my husband Dave Wilson. I couldn’t do any of this or be what I am without your love, talent and God knows patience.

I have Dave and another Dave: David Lee to thank for coming up with a concept for news that was years ahead of its time. They knew that journalism was only covering part of the story.

And it was Rob Sheppard and the gang at CTS , who agreed now was the time for a little more Good News.

Last but not least, my guideposts have been every individual, every child who opened their homes, their hearts to me, who trusted me with their hopes that by sharing their stories our world could be a better place.

Thank you to our community leaders like Kevin Smith and Sister Theresita for allowing me to sit at your table, learn from you wisdom and compassion and share in your vision.

I’ll close tonight with that grade 5 speech..the first time I stood before an audience. I still have those dog-earred, yellowed-with-time index cards somewhere. “I wonder what would happen if I woke up one morning and found myself living 100 years from now”…

Well I’m half-way there…I’ve seen a lot of change but one thing has stayed the same…the goodness in the people of this community, the willingness to reach out and make a difference and if I’ve been able to play the smallest role in helping connect those who need with those who need to give, then I am the better person, the grateful one for it.

More change will come in the next 50 years but there isn’t another place I’d rather watch the future arrive.
Thank you Hamilton.