By Kara Peters Unrau
Published June 2023
On April 15th, after a three year hiatus, we celebrated the 34th Mayors’ Dinner in person in Marshall Hall at Bingemans. With over 800 guests, the room was full and decorated to feel like home with warm furniture, bookshelves and subtle lights.
It was heartening to see so many longtime supporters of The Mayors’ Dinner come out to participate in this meaningful community event that highlighted the creative, grassroots efforts to addressing homelessness.
We are grateful to RBJ Schlegel Family Foundation for generously contribution as our main event sponsor.
The Mayors’ Dinner has a 34-year history of recognizing and celebrating people and organizations who have made a significant contribution to our community. Our hosts are the Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge Mayors. Mayors Berry Vrbanovic, Dorothy McCabe, Jan Liggett offered greetings and insights into how their cities have responded to homelessness.
The auction was a different experience this year. For 33 years we have had elaborate silent auction displays and a live auction. This year we developed an on-line auction organized around the theme of Reclaim Social! We held on to the auction component of the evening, but in a way that is less intrusive. The auction raised about $9,000 and we hope to build on this experience.
Video collages produced by Vidyard featured political and community leaders expressing their commitment and experiences in responding to the complexities of homelessness. Outreach workers provided video clips of individuals who were asked to share their experiences of homelessness, these were powerful stories that gave voice to the journey of 15 people.
A Better Tent City was highlighted with Jeff Willmer, Udanapher (Nadine) Green, Laura Hamilton & Fr. Toby Collins briefly speaking to the cooperative effort to establish ABTC and then to continue its operations. Craig Beattie from Perimeter Development spoke directly on how businesses can be involved, describing in detail Perimeter’s contribution of money and their full partnership as the key development partner for the 97 Victoria Marking Home project. Nikki Britton eloquently spoke from the perspective of an SOS outreach worker providing on the ground support.
The messages were strong and many people expressed a sense of hopefulness in the face of the complex issues of homelessness, recognizing the importance of community collaboration. Thank you to all who helped make this community building evening so successful.
