President’s Message
April 2025
It's spring! (by the calendar, anyway!) We are busily planning our Woman of the Year/Young Woman of the Year Gala and hoping to see all of you in attendance. Wouldn't that be an event to remember!
If you're a previous recipient of either award, please let us know when you purchase your ticket - you're a very special part of who we are, and this event in particular.
Nominations for the 2025 Woman of the Year are still open, with forms available on the website. Please submit your candidate before April 15th, 2025.
See you on April 9th, 2025; 5:30 doors open. Wishing for warm weather!!!
Cheers!
Trisha Cuthbertson
President
Event by Orillia Business Women's Association
Our April OBWA Networking Dinner Meeting will be held on April 9, 2025 at
Kelsey’s Roadhouse Restaurant, 405 Memorial Ave. Orillia, L3V 0T7
You must e-mail OBWA at: reserve@orilliabusinesswomen.com by 3 p.m. Friday April 4, 2025.
**Please note day change for reservations to be in**
Our RSVP numbers are submitted to Kelsey’s that day as they need to know numbers for staffing.
If you reserved your dinner spot and can’t attend please contact us right away so that we can try and fill the spot with someone else that may be on a waiting list.
As always we welcome all women to the OBWA and we are encouraging our members to bring a guest or two to our April meeting!
We continue our traditions with Toonies for Toiletries where the money collected goes for hygiene products for those in need in the community.
The Sharing Place are always in need of Donations. We will be collecting non-perishable food items and as well Clean Reusable Grocery Bags which we will donate to the Orillia Sharing Place.
Thank You to those that donate food & reusable bags at our meetings!
As well we will be doing a 50/50 draw at each meeting!
Congratulations to our March Winner of $25 from the 50/50 was Leah Cavanagh.
Networking Dinner Meeting Agenda:
Doors open at 5:30 pm (please no early birds)
There will no longer be an additional meeting fee for those paid up members in good standing.
There will be a $5 meeting fee for Honorary members
and
$10 for non members which is payable at the door
5:30 – Networking – please bring your business cards & brochures with you
5:50 p.m. Welcome to the OBWA
Dinner orders will be taken
30 Second intro & our business updates
(please respect each other by keeping to the time limit)
Business of the Month – Leah Cavanaugh – Century 21 B.J. Roth Realty Ltd.
April's Guest Speaker: Sarah Patterson
I was born and raised in Toronto. After doing my undergrad at Trent University, I returned to Toronto to do a Master's of Child Studies and Education at OISE. I began working at Scotia McLeod which turned into an almost 20-year career in increasingly senior roles in Learning and Development and HR with Scotia bank. I subsequently decided to return to my first love, which is summer camps. I spent the next several years running five summer camps where I was responsible for hiring and training the staff, as well as developing the programming for each of the different camps.
As many of us were, I was laid off during the pandemic. During this time, I co-founded an environmental organization called Common Earth, where we deliver online courses to help people develop a more holistic understanding of climate change. Our focus is trying to make complex systems more accessible by understanding some basic principles common to how all systems work. So, whether that system is the ecosystem(s) that supports life on the planet, or some of our current socio-economic systems, or indeed each one of us as a system - what universal principles exist and what can we glean from understanding how they operate, and where do we look if we want to make meaningful interventions?
My husband, Kyle and I moved from Toronto to Orillia a year and a half ago. We are loving it here and anxious to become more involved in this new city we call home. My sister and her two girls have joined us, and we are a larger collective unit living on what we have affectionally dubbed the family compound. It has been quite the adjustment going from no kids to having 2 teenagers! On a personal note, I love hosting family and friends, am an avid reader, and am the most enthusiastic yet terrible singer you will ever meet.
I look forward to meeting new friends and colleagues and finding ways I can be of service to this wonderful community.
Closing words
Happy Birthday to our Members born in April!
Your 2024-2025 OBWA Executive Committee Are:
Top left to right: President - Trisha Cuthbertson, Secretary -Susan Zaroski
Treasurer - Lynn Peterson, Membership Co-Ordinator - Dale McKay
Bottom left to right – Speaker Co-Ordinator - Paula Martyn,
Social Media & Website Management Corry Ticknor,
Executive Assistant - Cara Cooper
Please note: Memberships are due September 1st , 2024 & need to be paid for you to be a member in good standing. $100 membership fee will keep you a member in good standing until August 31,2025 . Members have the privilege of posting on social media & have their information about their business and themselves on our website as well as posting on Face Book. Non-members can attend meetings though without the other privileges. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact one of our executive members. Paypal payments accepted only: https://orilliabusinesswomen.com/OnlinePayments
Thank You To all Our OBWA 2024 Gala Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Sheelagh Gunn, Sheelagh’s Visionaries
Leah C. Cavanaugh, Century 21
Harvey’s, Orillia
Downey, Tornosky, Lassaline & Timpano Law
Wendy Timpano, Orillia Area Community Development Corp.
Corry Ticknor, EPIC Luxury Vacations
Sandi Raven, Remarkable Engraving & Gifts
Danielle Tisi, Mclean & Dickey Ltd. Insurance
Tiffany Denena, Master Lube Rust Check
HGR Graham Partners LLP
Silver Sponsors
Cyndi Tryon, Kahshe Hypnosis
Susan Zaroski, Scentsy
Lisa Welch Madden Law Firm
Krista Walker, RBC Mortgage Specialists
Dale McKay, Biofield Tuning Ontario
Fairfield Inn & Suites
Cara Cooper, Anam Cara Osteo & Energy
Bronze Sponsors
Lynn Peterson Tax Consultant
Trisha Cuthbertson, More Than Just Cards
Chantal DuBois, Chawn’s Painting
Barden Home Inspections
Montana’s BBQ & Bar Orillia
Tnt Fine Lingeries & Bra Boutique
