Month: August 2017

Sunday August 6^th Inverness County Cares (ICC) hosted their 4^th annual pizza sale  in aid of the St Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya.

A sincere thank you, to Ted and Hermina Van Zutphen who opened their beautiful home to Inverness County Cares for our pizza sale. Both Ted and Hermina have worked tirelessly to make this happen. Ted stood at the pizza oven for hours in the rain and had to change his clothes 3 times because of the torrential rain. Hermina worked many hours organizing the purchase of supplies and set up of the working area and workers. A very special thank you to Ted and Hermina who also donate all the supplies needed for the pizzas….for four years.

Thank you to our regular ICC members and our auxiliary members who show up when we need a powerful workforce. Approximately 40 people came out to help despite the fact August 6 was part of the Port Hood Chestico Days festival. All ages gladly participated and gave their time to ensure St Charles Lwanga Secondary School children have access to food, shelter and education.

A big thank you to the Bank of Nova Scotia for their sponsorship. We certainly appreciate the donation. Thank you to the Hawk Radio and our newspapers The Inverness Oran, The Port Hawkesbury Reporter and the Cape Breton Post who so generously share our story and provided publicity. Thank you to the Clove Hitch Restaurant and Bistro for their support during crust making which was so crucial and made the process much more efficient.

Thank you to our local people…and those far away, who bought pizzas and donated money to our cause. We appreciate your support so very much.

Despite the heavy rain, cancellation of the boat parade and fireworks (events which bring people in) the sale was very successful.  ICC members and supporters are breathing a sigh of relief but are experiencing a high thinking of all that was accomplished.

Inverness group helping Kenyan kids

Inverness County Cares hosts pizza sale Sunday

Christian Roach [email protected]
Published on August 4, 2017

Volunteers, left to right, Karen Wager, Patsy Wayling and Bonnie Boulton prep pizzas at last year’s Inverness County Cares annual pizza sale.

©Submitted photo/Inverness County Cares

PORT HOOD, N.S. – This weekend a local charity will be selling more than 300 pizzas to help a school in Kenya.

On Sunday, Inverness County Cares will host its fourth annual pizza sale in Port Hood with proceeds going to St. Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya.

The school was started in 2012 by Brother John Kennedy Oronjo, a member of the St. Charles Lwanga Brothers of Kenya. The group is comprised of religious brothers, dedicated to the care of youth, traditionally through education.

In 2012, Oronjo became acquainted with John MacInnis, a member of the Inverness County Cares organization.

“I threw the idea out to the group that we could donate $500 a month to the school because that’s what Brother Kennedy said could feed the 100 or so students attending for a month and they all agreed,” said MacInnis.

Six months later, two members of the Inverness group travelled to Nairobi to visit the school and learned they lacked basic amenities like water so the monthly donation was raised to $800.

In 2015, Inverness County Cares entered into a three-year deal with the charity, Chalice Canada in Bedford. The partnership enabled the Inverness group to increase its contribution to the school to $60,000 a year with a matching $60,000 a year from Chalice.

The goal was to have the school become self-sufficient and sustainable, explained John Gillies, a retired teacher and member of Inverness County Cares.

Having St. Charles Lwanga Secondary School navigate its own finances and give the now, 280 students what they need, has been important to both Inverness County Cares and Chalice.

“We worked out a partnership deal with (Chalice) whereby $120,000 per year is sent to the school, only after a detailed budget is worked out so that we know exactly where the money is going,” said Gillies.

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To raise the $60,000, the Inverness group enlists businesses, people from the community and across Canada to donate what they can.

The group’s largest fundraiser is its annual pizza sale, which accounts for roughly 10 per cent of its charitable earnings.

The pizza sale is a huge undertaking that requires dozens of volunteers, organization and countless hours of preparation.

Colleen MacDonald, a member of Inverness County Cares who helps organize the pizza sale, said it isn’t an easy task.

“About three weeks ago we went over to the Clove Hitch restaurant … and made 317 crusts and froze them, so they’re ready to go,” said MacDonald.

On pizza day, dozens of volunteers will help produce more than 300 pizzas. In the morning the choppers and graters prepare the cheese and toppings and a production line to top the pizzas is formed. The pies are cooked in an outdoor wood-fired oven.

“It’s a very positive and good feeling to know that people here in Inverness County are able to think globally but act locally in terms of improving lives of these children in a distant land,” said Gillies.

The pizza sale happens on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. at 209 Main St., Port Hood and continues until the last pizza is sold.

For more information on the sale and the children of St. Charles Lwanga Secondary School, visit invernesscountycares.com or lwangachildren.com.

[email protected]

Inverness County Cares wishes to thank our supporters who make our pizza sales such a success. This year despite very inclement weather …which cancelled the boat parade and fireworks, we sold a large amount of pizzas. Thank you to our workers who make the event happen. We truly appreciate the time you devote to our cause.  We are so fortunate to have such a strong support base.

Sunday August 6^th, (10AM until sell out) Inverness County Cares (ICC) will host their 4^th annual pizza sale at 209, Main Street, Port Hood, in aid of the St Charles Lwanga Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya. This event has proven to be a major fundraiser in the campaign to support the school. Preparation for this event begins about a month in advance. The process involves the recruiting of workers, calculating and ordering of ingredients, preparing schedules and reviewing notes and information on last year’s event. The crusts are prepared in advance, by a crew of a dozen workers. For the three previous years Hermina and Ted Van Zutphen’s kitchen was taken over by workers mixing, weighing, rolling, shaping and pre-cooking the crusts. This year the Clove Hitch Restaurant offered use of their kitchen, so from 5:30 AM to 11:30AM the restaurant kitchen was taken over by ICC workers. The two restaurant ovens and a great working space enabled ICC workers to produce 337 crusts. Taste tests were engaged in and the pizza made with Hermina’s crust recipe was declared delicious.

On Pizza day a multitude of volunteers descend on the spacious kitchen of Ted and Hermina Van Zutphen. Producing over 300 pizzas in a day takes many hands. Early morning the choppers and graters prepare the cheese and toppings. By 9:30 the large dining room table is transformed into a production line where prepared ingredients are applied to the crusts according to recipe. Central to all the activity is the large outdoor wood-fired brick pizza oven built by Alan MacIsaac. It can reach temperatures of 800C and quickly cooks our four varieties of pizza. Volunteers consist of ICC members but also include a large number of community supporters, including a sponsorship from Scotia Bank.

When the flour dust settles in the late evening of Pizza day, a very tired group of happy workers celebrate their relationship with this very basic school, while they think about three hundred hopeful children who are provided with an education, their only way to break the cycle of poverty. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

A sincere thank-you to our members, volunteers, supporters, The Clove Hitch and especially to Ted and Hermina Van Zutphen, who have covered the cost of all pizza ingredients for the last 4 years.

lwangachildren.com

invernesscountycares.com