For many years, CBC across our nation, has held their ‘Project Give’ campaign to assist Canadians by fundraising. This year, they changed the fundraising campaign to ‘Make the Season Kind’. On Thursday, December 5, CBC brought this campaign and their entertaining evening to Stittsville residents – on the stage at Sacred Heart High School. The auditorium was filled with those wanting to help the Stittsville and Ottawa Food Banks.
CBC Radio personalities Hallie Cotnam and Alan Neal hosted the evening with their comedic routines and promised an exciting lineup of musicians along with other CBC personalities joining them. CBC definitely brought attendees an unforgettable evening filled with comedy, music and kindness in supporting our local food banks. Santa was also there for those family photos.
Rachel Wilson, CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, came to the stage carrying a bowl. What did this represent? She said that the bowl represents holiday meals and recalled a story from 1998 when the great Ice Storm took place. She was in Montreal during this time, with no heat or electricity, the neighbours came together and the bowl represents those people coming together during that time. She was also pleased to report that the fundraising day had raised over $247,000 from the people of Ottawa. It also helped to receive an extremely generous donation from Toon Dresson, she pointed out.
The team at CBC created skits throughout the evening based on children’s stories that had been submitted to their local stations at the CBC Friends group. These kept the audience in stitches with the comedic routines! Two of the stories acted out were from Stittsville students who attend Shingwàkons Public School, Rosie who submitted ‘Winter Troubles’ and Adrianne who had submitted ”Twas the Night Before Disaster’.
The special guests who entertained the audience were:
- OrKidstra: an Ottawa-based social development program empowering kids and building community through the universal language of music. They brought their eight-piece ensemble to light up the stage with Christmas carols.
- Alicia Kayley: a local singer who’s trained in opera, but can bring the house down with her incredible blues-pop sound. She’s fresh off of recording her debut album with Crystal Shawanda in Nashville to be released in 2025. She was accompanied by Alexi on guitar.
- Banggz: an innovative force in music boldly fusing Afrobeats and hip-hop to pioneer his unique sound. His music pushes for the creation of a community where no one is left behind.
Comedians Janelle Niles and Hart Shouldice – a graduate of Merivale High School – brought their humour and heart to the evening with their many lines and stories full of humour. Special appearances were also made by CBC Radio personalities Amanda Pfeffer, host of ‘Ontario Today’ and Giacomo Panico, host of ‘In Town and Out’. Giacomo could also be found earlier in the day at the Stittsville Food Bank playing an important role.
Special for Stittsville residents during the evening, we also could hear the ivories being played by our talented Councillor Gower. His rendition of Silver Bells was wonderful. He appeared in some of the skits with his background piano playing suspenseful music that fit right in and brought the skit together.
Local businesses were also involved. Chi Houron owner of Ritual on Main was there providing her tasty sandwiches, desserts and coffee in support of the Stittsville Food Bank. Jacinta of JacintaPics was selling her beautiful 2025 calendars also supporting the Stittsville Food Bank as she has done annually since creating her calendar. And, of course, Theresa Qadri and the volunteers of the Stittsville Food Bank were on hand collecting donations of non-perishable food items and monetary gifts. It’s not too late, you can still donate to the Stittsville Food Bank personally at 1631 Stittsville Food Bank or online at Stittsvillefoodbank.ca.
All of the CBC staff parted into two teams – CBC Radio versus CBC Video – to hold a ‘Festive Feud’. The faced off against each other by answering some obvious questions based on local issues and locations, but the responses had a twist. For instance, where is the best escape room in Ottawa? Well, the Canadian Tire Centre parking lot, of course! The winner of this fury of the families was announced by Doug Hemstead, yes that CBC traffic guy from Stittsville, ‘the real winner is the Web team!”.
For those who attended, it was a delightful evening of entertainment filled with many laughs, great music and generous donations to the food banks.
