Charity Auction

Some of you may wonder what happened to the money raised at the charity auction. Well, the money was distributed equally between three charities: Autism Speaks Canada, The Touchstone Youth Centre, and the Lakeland Humane Society. We had originally planned to support the Toronto Humane Society, but had some difficulties in arranging to get them the money – and therefore in the same spirit, we supported a local humane society. Tom Melissis himself presented the cheque to the Touchstone Youth Centre in January, a presentation which was attended by Mr. Joseph Talavera on behalf of RCW 139. I’ll let Joseph describe what it was like:

“Sorry it's taken me so long to get this to you. I hope it's not too late to get this on the website. I know it's important that people see where their support has gone and the difference it's making in lives of youth in need.

The organizers' hard work and the attendees' generosity combined to make RCW a tremendous success. It was a privilege for me to represent both groups at the cheque presentation to Touchstone Youth Centre, the charity selected by Tom Melissis.

Tom and I drove together to Touchstone together. During the ride, we talked about the last time we were together for this identical purpose. The year was 1998. I think Tom's continued support of this charity, over 10 years later, speaks not only to Tom's character, but also the amazing work that Touchstone does.