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Evening of Elegance branded logo featues a black and gold background. The gold is a warm colour depicting lights that are blurred and out of focus. ramed by this background is a rectangle text box with looping cursive font which reads "Evening of Elegance."

 

Evening of Elegance 2024

 

 

 

 

On Friday, April 19, 2024, almost one hundred guests joined us at St George Banquet Hall in Waterloo for our ninth annual Evening of Elegance event.

 

During the evening, guests socialized with their friends and new connections, participated in a silent auction with a range of items from generous local businesses, and tried delicious bites with wine pairings. Becky Verdun, who was our special guest speaker for the evening, also shared her musical talents with us. She played a variety of classical and modern songs on the piano as guests mixed and mingled at the start of the night.

 

As always, we are so grateful to all those who supported our silent auction and donated items. We'd also like to extend extra warmth and thanks to Dave Rutherford and the KW Woodworking and Craft Centre crew! Dave and the KW Woodworking group donated another amazing selection of unique hand-crafted goods for our silent auction. So much time and dedication went into these items, and we were honoured to have been gifted such beautiful pieces to include in our auction for the second year in a row.

 

As mentioned, we were joined by Becky Verdun for a very special presentation. Becky is a social worker, the sibling of someone with Down syndrome, and the daughter of two strong parent advocates. She currently works as an Accommodation Consultant with Accessible Learning at Wilfrid Laurier University, supporting students with disabilities to access accommodations and supports. She previously worked with WRFN as a social work student, which was one step along a windy career path that has primarily been focused on building a more equitable and inclusive community. Becky spoke about her experience as a sibling of a sister with a disability, an important but often less considered aspect of a family’s journey. We were honoured to be graced with Becky’s story of learnings, wisdom and acceptance gained, and overall perspective.

 

Joining us for his first year at Evening of Elegance, Brock Greenhalgh was a wonderful Master of Ceremonies for the evening, keeping the evening on schedule and encouraging guests to participate in our silent auction.

 

We are pleased to share that we were able to raise a net total of $24,000 for WRFN’s programs and future workshops at this year’s event.

 

 

 

2024 Volunteer Award Recipients

 

 

 

 

Jodi Purdie & Leslie Huys

 

The recipients of our 2023/24 Volunteer Awards were Jodi Purdie and Leslie Huys. Jodi and Leslie have been amazing and committed volunteers on the Evening of Elegance planning group for the past eight years.

 

Over the years, Leslie and Jodi﹘key members of our Evening of Elegance planning group, always sharing lots of ideas and contributing at monthly planning meetings. They have helped secure silent auction items and sponsorships along with MCs in addition to engaging other volunteers, not to mention all the ways they pitch in on the day and night of the event.

 

Thank you, Leslie and Jodi, for your dedication to the WRFN community and to this enjoyable and important annual event.

 

 

This is a photo of Jodi and Leslie, two esteemed individuals. Jodi, on the left, is dressed in a dignified dark grey lace gown, while Leslie, standing next to her, wears a black short-sleeved dress. They are positioned in front of a majestic gold arch adorned with vibrant orange and gold paper flowers. Each holds a plaque, The Matthew MacGregor Award, symbolizing their outstanding achievement.

 

 

 

 

Event Sponsors

 

 

 

Evening of Elegance 2024 was generously sponsored by Heffner Toyota, Melloul Blamey, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP, Coupal Markou, Your Neighbourhood Credit Union, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), Megawire INC, and an anonymous sponsor.

This Logo of Heffner Toyota features the word "Heffner" on the left in bolded black text. The Toyota logo is on the right, separated by a black vertical line. This Logo is framed in a red square with the logo, an oval with two linked rings, and the company name stands out in white, making it recognizable.

This Coupal Markou logo features side-by-side rectangle frames; the one on the left is black, and the one on the right is red. "Coupal" is in black, and Markou is in red, and both words are in white.

This Gowling WLG logo features a blue and red circle with white showing in the middle. Beside the two circles is bolded dark text which reads "Gowling WLG."

This logo features large white bolded text "Melloul Blamey" underneath in smaller bolded white text which reads "Construction." The text is framed by a dark blue rectangle.

 

 

This Logo features thick bolded black text reading "YNCU." Beside the "U" is a green house shape.

This Logo features "MW" in red text with a red circle around it. Beside is the black bolded text which reads Megawire.

This logo features a red square with a triangle in its centre. Underneath, in matching text are the letters TMMC. Beside the red text is black text reading "Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc."

 

This photo features guest speaker Becky Verdun playing piano. She is seated and wearing a black dress.

This Photo features WRFN Executive Director Sue Simpson and WRFN Fund Development Officer Oula Almadhoun, smiling side by side. Sue wears a grey shell with a black dress, and Oula wears a grey overcoat and has on a burgundy blouse.

This photo features the Matthew McGregor Volunteer Award winners, Jodi and Leslie, posing and smiling with the McGregor family. All parties are dressed in formal attire, dark dresses and lighter-coloured suits.

This photo features a wide shot of the event's ballroom. The photo's point of view is facing the lecture hall, where the master of ceremonies is speaking to a large audience of attending guests.

 

The photo is of the beautiful white floral arrangement placed at each event table for the evening.

This photo features a table of some of the assorted food items for guests at the event.

This photo features the table of auction items that raised money for WRFN at the event.

This post features guest speaker Becky Verdun and her partner posing and smiling. Beck wears a knee-length black dress, and her partner wears a grey suit with a white dress shirt.