Saturday 8 November 2014

Make a difference with a Mo

The Movember Foundation seeks to change the face of men’s health through many different programs aimed at improving the health outcomes of the men in 21 countries. 

Priority issues are prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health. In addition, the Awareness & Education project seeks to educate and inform men on health issues men face. More information is at: http://au.movember.com/programs

There are several locals home grown mos on the go and an online community of mo-bros and mo-sistas supporting the mo-hood.

The recently re-elected Chair of the Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group, Nico Marcar is participating in his 1st Movember campaign and donations to Nico’s Mo are for a worthy cause.

TASNG Annual Report from The Chair Nico Marcar
The AGM for the local Sustainable Neighbourhood group was held on 9/10/14 and a new Committee elected
Chair                          Nico Marcar
Assistant Chair            Suzanne Pritchard
Secretary                    Lois Simpson
Treasurer                    Tricia Hunt
Assistant Sec.             Tony Stephens
Alliance Rep.              Steve Dewar

Once again, our achievements are due to the hard work of our committee and project leaders. Special thanks to John Gill for the rigour and enthusiasm he has shown as Secretary since the inception of TASNG (sadly, John will not be nominating this year and he will be greatly missed) and to Steve Dewar for again representing TASNG at the Alliance meetings. Sadly Era Wellsmore (our former treasurer) died in June from a prolonged fight with cancer; Era made a great contribution to TASNG, the Coal Point Progress Association (CPPA) and the Toronto Tidy Towns Association.

We have continued to work closely with the Sustainability Alliance of Council (thanks to Rachelle and other Council staff) to consolidate our group, deliver our projects and advertise our activities through the Council website and pamphlets. We also maintain an excellent working relationship with the Coal Point Progress Association (CPPA), thanks to Suzanne Pritchard, and the Toronto Tidy Towns Association, thanks to Kelly Hoare and Lynn Pascoe.

There are currently three teams operating:
1. Recycling and Waste Management (Steve Dewar leader)
2. Cycling and Pedestrian (Nico Marcar leader)
3. Landcare (Robyn Gill leader); this team is closely linked with the CPPA landcare project.

In addition, we continue to maintain a close association with the Community Gardens project (Chris Murphy leader), which operates at The Hub (formerly the Toronto Senior Citizens Association), Toronto.

We successfully completed two community projects this year;
(i)             'The Tossers Can Be Binners' project which aimed to minimise littering near Woolworths and Aldi and surrounds through the installation of bins, recycling facilities, signs, commissioning of a mural on a wall of the carpark facing The Boulevarde and graffiti cleaning on the stairwell of the parking station (with grants from Combined Clubs via Toronto Worker's Club and Keep Australia Beautiful), Steve Dewar leader and
(ii)            A 'Fire Retardant Garden Demonstration' project with an 80 m sq garden of fire retardant plants established at the Toronto Fire Station (with a grant from Council and with enthusiastic support from the firefighters!), Lois Simpson leader. Both projects garnered considerable community support and publicity, including at their launches.

We have also been proactive with requests to Council for improving cycling facilities at Fennel Bay Bridge and locations in the Toronto area. We continue our interest to interact with Council on improvements to cycling and pedestrian access, further discussions on the next phase of the Toronto Streetscape Master Plan and community consultations on specific DAs.

TASNG Landcare
The Toronto Area of the Sustainable Neighbourhood group encompasses Toronto and supporters are sought for Landcaring along the Greenway- 2nd Sunday of the month from 9am-noon. Carey St to Cook St contact Alex steelaljo@gmail.com or Joan Steele 0425 201 322, 4959 1472

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