GUELPH – The winner of the $25,000 2018 Oak Tree Project grand prize is St. John Bosco Catholic High School in Guelph.
After months of planning, presenting to a Dragons Den-style panel of sector specialists and rallying supporters, the winner was announced on Nov. 1 at the Old Quebec Street Shoppes.
St. John Bosco will put the prize money toward the hiring of a nutrition coach to work with students.
“This is our largest Oak Tree prize ever and we are so excited to see how the team from Bosco will use these funds,” said Oak Tree founder Will Mactaggart.
“A gift of this size is going to help them really help move the needle on the issue of nutritional awareness and empowerment for youth in our community.”
The winner was chosen by combining evaluations from a pitch made to a panel of expert community judges with the total number of community votes received during a month of online voting.
St. John Bosco had the highest combined score.
In addition, the remaining four semi-finalists (Food4Kids, Hope House, Shelldale Better Beginnings Better Futures and Women in Crisis) will each receive $1,500 in support of their projects. The six organizations that applied to Oak Tree 2018 but did not make it through to the finals will each receive $500.
“This has been the most exciting Oak Tree finish in our five years,” said Doug MacMillan, president of the Letter M Marketing and founding sponsor.
“Just hours before the voting closed on Oct. 15, we had hundreds of votes come in, which pushed our total vote count to over 6,100.
“Our five semi-finalists did amazing work to rally their supporters. They all can be proud.”
In fact, Oak Tree organizers announced two new funding prizes, the Acorn and Seedling prizes.
Combined these new grants will distribute another $7,500 to local charities.
All Guelph and Wellington charities are invited to take part. Full details can be found at oaktreeguelph.ca.
