Weekend to End Women’s Cancers

WOMEN IN MINING AIM FOR $100,000 IN WALK FOR WOMEN’S CANCERS

Toronto (August 11, 2010) – The Women in Mining Network team (“WIM Team”) has pledged to raise at least $100,000 in donations in this year’s Shoppers Drug Mart Weekend to End Women’s Cancers on September 11 and 12. The two-day, 60-kilometre walk through the streets of Toronto is an annual event benefiting the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

The tiny WIM Team brings both heart and experience to their fund-raising efforts. In the last three years, the team has raised a staggering $317,000 for this event, despite uncertain economic times. Last year the nine-person WIM Team raised $60,600 in 350 donations, including many corporate donations. As a result, the Women in Mining Network was honoured with a plaque mounted on the lobby wall inside Princess Margaret Hospital recognizing its fund-raising achievements, and was given the distinction of “Pacesetter”, which was only bestowed upon a handful of teams.

Team members are all associated with the mining industry in the Toronto area, and are members of the Toronto Branch of the Women in Mining Network. This is an informal business and social group that meets monthly to keep women informed about all aspects of the mining business and to promote various functions such as mentoring, professional development and social responsibility. The Women in Mining branches in Toronto and Vancouver have worked together on fund-raising for both breast cancer research and micro-financing for underprivileged people in South Africa.

The team’s goal in the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers this year is twofold – to raise more than $100,000 in donations and to attract more corporate donors than last year. This is a daunting challenge. The seven members of this year’s WIM Team so far have raised over $31,000 in 180 donations, placing them 19th among the teams in the event. With only a month until the event, they have stepped up their work, launching a massive email blitz requesting donations from Canada’s 1,800 mining companies, plus running a national publicity campaign. All of this volunteer work is being done outside of everyone’s day jobs, at the same time the team members are working their bodies to prepare for the gruelling walk.

“We can use the success of our fund-raising to show that Canada’s mining people and companies, particularly our corporate sponsors, give back to society,” says Kate Armstrong, WIM team captain and principal of the communications consulting firm Kate Connect Inc. “That’s a positive message that we can broadcast maybe better than any other group in Canada.” Co-captain Jane Werniuk adds, “The social responsibility work that we are doing through the Women in Mining Network not only proves that we can organize, motivate and succeed, but gives us extra opportunities to hone our teamwork and management skills. At the same time we are doing some good for women and for The Princess Margaret Hospital.” Werniuk is senior geologist technical reporting with the gold mining company Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.

So far the WIM Team has received donations or pledges from the following companies: Agnico-Eagle Mines, Ensign Drilling, Foraco Canada, Geo Stakers, Golder Associates, IAMGOLD Corporation, Macleod Dixon LLP, Malbex Resources, MGI & Associates, Scott Wilson RPA, Teck Resources and Votorantim Minerals. As well, the team has received in-kind assistance from the Canadian and American Mines Handbook, Canadian Mining Journal, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, and the Women in Mining Network. The sponsors are acknowledged at http://www.women-in-mining.com/weekend-to-end-womens-cancers .

Donations can be made at www.endcancer.ca/goto/Women-in-mining by clicking on any team member’s name to make an online donation up to September 10. At the same site a donor can click on “Support Women in Mining” to print off a team donation form, and mail it to the address on the form together with a cheque made out to “Weekend to End Women’s Cancers”, no later than August 31; write “Women in Mining” in the “Name of the team you’re sponsoring” on the form.

For more information contact:

Kate Armstrong, Women in Mining Team captain
Principal, Kate Connect Inc.

A message from Jane Werniuk.

We want more teammates and more donations for 2010! The sky is the limit. We have a dedicated group of team members who are passionate about helping to support the fight against cancer, and we all have some personal experience in that area. The mining industry is coming on very strong this year, so we know there is money available from employees and companies for important social causes, such as women’s cancers. We would really appreciate tapping into the strength of the Women in Mining Toronto Branch network to telegraph our message to members and their colleagues and friends, so that, if we can’t approach each mining company and person ourselves, our WIM ambassadors can. We’ll do the walking; if everyone else can help with the communications and fund-raising we can make this another really successful year.”

For those who missed the presentation on The Weekend to End Women’s Cancers on May 12, 2010, Christine Anderson from The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation talked about the 3 ways you can get involved: (1) Walk the new 1-day option or the full 2-days as part of the Women in Mining team; (2) Support the Women in Mining team with a donation; and/or (3) contact Christine to set up an information session at your office to help recruit more walkers and hopefully even create a corporate team. Christine can be reached at Christine.anderson@pmhf.ca. To join or donate to the Women in Mining team, please visit our team page. And finally, there is a fantastic viral video about The Weekend on YouTube.