{"id":24233,"date":"2019-07-11T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24233"},"modified":"2019-07-11T19:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:03:18","slug":"portraits-of-giving-recipients-receive-hometown-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/portraits-of-giving-recipients-receive-hometown-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of Giving recipients receive hometown welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone can write a\ncheque, but giving your time and talent is something else again \u2013 and it can\nmake a lasting impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is one of the\ndriving forces in the life of Rosalyn Gonsalves, the inaugural recipient of\nPortraits of Giving\u2019s \u201cLifetime Giver\u201d award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraits of Giving,\nthe brainchild of Richmond Hill photographer Karen Merk, was created as a way\nof honouring York Region residents who give back to their respective\ncommunities. Now in its tenth year, Portraits of Giving\u2019s Class of 2019\nincludes Ms. Gonsalves, and fellow Aurora honouree Benny Socia, former owner of\nthe Aurora Tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both local residents\nwere honoured last month as the Portraits of Giving tour arrived at Town Hall\u2019s\nSkylight Gallery \u2013 and this week is your last chance to see Ms. Merk\u2019s\nportraits and learn more about this year\u2019s dozen honourees before the tour\nmoves on to Georgina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince our opening\nreception at the Sheraton Parkway Hotel in April, we are continuing our role of\ninspiring and celebrating corporate responsibility in York Region through the\nstories, portraits and videos of over 100 York Region leaders as of this year,\u201d\nsaid Ms. Merk at a special celebration honouring Ms. Gonsalves and Mr. Socia.\n\u201cThanks to our guests who attended our April 11 opening celebration, we have\nraised $5,500 for Canadian Feed the Children, who educate and help Aboriginal\nchildren and other children around the world. We are very thankful for all of\nour partners who have helped us grow over the years to become a unique\ninitiative about giving back that also gives back and highlights the many\nbenefits like employee engagement, building stronger communities, and simply\nfeeling good while we give back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI truly believe if we\ncan, we should give back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a philosophy\nshared by Ms. Gonsalves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Gonsalves was\nnominated by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, where, from 1985 \u2013 2006, she\nserved as General Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a time of\nsignificant development for the Chamber and during her tenure she helped\nspearhead a number of firsts including the Aurora Home Show in 1987 and the\nAurora Street Festival, both of which remain popular to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she first joined\nthe Chamber, they could only offer $4 an hour, but that didn\u2019t matter to her.\nThey only had $3,000 in the bank back then, no permanent home, but at the end\nof her term as General Manager, their finances were more secure \u2013 and they had\nbuilt a new permanent home with zero debt thanks to some canny fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Chamber of\nCommerce, however, was not Ms. Gonsalves\u2019 first foray into being a local\ndifference-maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little more than a\nyear after she, her husband George, and their two children settled into their\nnew hometown, people across Aurora soon learned her name as she went door to\ndoor collecting signatures for a highly successful petition to eliminate\nlong-distance charges on calls made from Aurora to Toronto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting petition\nof 5,000 signatures was presented in the House of Commons by then-MP Sinclair\nStevens and, from there, it made its way through the CRTC to become a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Gonsalves has also\ndedicated her time to supporting parent councils where her children attended\nschool, has served on various councils at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church,\nthe Friends of the Aurora Public Library, the Economic Development Advisory\nCommittee for the Town of Aurora, and currently volunteers a number of hours\neach month with the PROBUS Club of Aurora, the Newmarket Voice Festival, and\nthe Optimist Club of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am honoured and\nhumbled to have achieved the Lifetime Achievement Award from Portraits of\nGiving,\u201d Ms. Gonsalves told well-wishers, including Mayor Tom Mrakas, at the\nrecent reception. \u201cI would especially like to thank Sandra Ferri, Executive\nDirector of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, and Sandra Watson for submitting my\nnomination. Volunteering builds a sense of community and belonging. It also\nhelps to develop your creativity and open-mindedness to new ideas of affecting\nchange. Governments do not provide sufficient funding to fulfil the essential\nservices necessary to meet the needs of the underprivileged in our society.\nAnyone can write a cheque, but giving of one\u2019s time and talents, lending an\near, or simply just being there, can make a lasting difference in people\u2019s\nlives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou embody what a\ntrue Auroran is,\u201d remarked Mayor Mrakas, before presenting a token of\ncongratulations to Ms. Gonsalves. \u201cThis award is about giving. You\u2019re selfless,\nyou\u2019re helpful, you\u2019re loving and a dear friend, and I am honoured to be able\nto present you with this certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Skylight Gallery stop on the Portraits of\nGiving Tour wraps this Friday, July 12. It returns to Aurora from September 16\n\u2013 October 1, where the work will be showcased at the York Regional Police\nheadquarters on Don Hillock Drive.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Anyone can write a cheque, but giving your time and talent is something else again \u2013 and it can make a lasting impact. That is one of the driving forces in the life of Rosalyn Gonsalves, the inaugural recipient of Portraits of Giving\u2019s \u201cLifetime Giver\u201d award. Portraits of Giving, the brainchild of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2019-07-11-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6iR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 09:53:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}