BY MARY DICKIE It’s a long way from the offices of a high-profile fashion magazine
in Toronto to a medical charity’s temporary optical clinic in Santa Cruz
de la Sierra, Bolivia, but the contrast between those two very
different worlds is exactly what Noreen Flanagan is after. Flanagan is
the editor in chief of ELLE Canada magazine, and while her job often
requires travelling to glamorous locales, there’s a kind of satisfaction
she only gets from donating a week or two of her time to Medical
Mission International (MMI), a charity that provides medical services
for people in...
Seeing The World
Medical Mission International provides glasses to eye surgery
BY JIM BARBER Seana O’Neill was sitting on her dock on Clement Lake in Wilberforce,
Ontario, in the early summer of 2002, when she realized that once she
returned to Toronto for work her Haliburton-area cottage was going to
sit vacant for weeks. Hence, the idea for Cottage Dreams, which lends
cottages to cancer survivors.
“My mom is a two-time survivor of breast cancer, and we had a cottage
growing up on Lake of Bays in Muskoka, so we spent a huge amount of
time there. It just made sense that when I had my own cottage, and going
through the cancer scares with my mom, that we could do...
Cottage Dreams
Own an Ontario vacation property that sits dormant for a week?
BY KAREN BLISS Bryan Adams was recently honoured with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at the 2010 Juno Awards in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, which he was unable to accept in person when the Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounded flights all over Europe and the U.K.The Canadian rocker, who has sold more than 75 millions albums worldwide, has been giving back in a big way since the beginning of his career but is a little embarrassed to be receiving an award for his philanthropy.Bryan Adams at The Bread of Life home for children living with AIDS/HIV in St. Vincent photo...
Bryan Adams
A lifelong philanthropist
BY CORI FERGUSON Sometimes losing something that means everything can lead to a calling that means so much more. Such is the case for Wendy Huntbatch who in 1993 founded the World Parrot Refuge in Coombs, British Columbia, after four of her parrots were stolen. She now cares for hundreds of these gorgeous tropical birds, all of which are on the Endangered Species List.“Starting a parrot refuge was something that was never in my realm of thought,” Huntbatch says, but the night her birds were taken changed everything. She and her husband regularly took the birds with them to the office and, she...
Fly And Be Free
A palace for parrots
BY KIM HUGHES
In 2010, unless your name is Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, it’s unlikely anyone is going to declare you a pioneer. Though she’s not quite as famous, Toronto-based fashion designer Izzy Camilleri is a comparable trailblazer and her innovations are impacting lives, albeit among a smaller constituency.
Camilleri designs and creates a line of clothing for women who use wheelchairs called the IZ Collection of Adaptable Clothing. That may not sound revolutionary until you stop to consider how specialized, varied and numerous the needs of people living in wheelchairs can be and...
Izzy Camilleri's IZ Adaptable Clothing
Stylish and thoughtful
BY SARAH MELODY The cheap plastic yellow LiveStrong bracelets by the Lance Armstrong
Foundation have raised millions for the cause, but really, who is going
to wear that on a daily basis, if at all? Of course the dollar cost is
no biggie and a worthwhile, inexpensive purchase, but isn’t it better to
have a piece of jewelry that you can proudly wear? Vancouver jewelry
designer and cancer survivor Susan Fiedler of Soul Flower has been
turning heads with her elegant sterling silver bracelet engraved with
the words we all feel — “Fuck Cancer.”
“I did not make the bracelet as a...
The Name Says It All
Tell cancer what you think of it
By Kevin Shea Sportsnet.ca describes Andrew Ference of
the Boston Bruins as
“Fearless. Displays terrific hockey sense. Can log a ton of icetime.
Loves to hit.” He is a leader who takes care of his own end and looks
out for his teammates. Off the ice, he extends that same leadership role
to his fellow members in the National Hockey League Players’
Association (NHLPA) by making them aware of their environmental
responsibility.
“As a hockey player, we travel to other cities to play other teams,
and that adds up to a lot of air travel, and air travel is a huge
emitter of carbon dioxide...
Green Ice
Andrew Ference and Dr. David Suzuki
