MPI Charity Auction & Dinner – January 30, 2020

On January 30, over 500 attendees gathered for the 16^th annual MPI Charity Auction & Dinner which took place this year at the Shaw Centre. The organizing committee transported attendees to warm tropical beaches with help from the amazingly beached out decor by Mastermind Event Rentals, who truly transformed the room to match the tropical paradise them. Many people took this theme to heart and showed how to be truly living their best beach vacation life.








The night’s emcee extraordinaire, game show host to the MPI stars, was the always entertaining Brian Henry of Quality Entertainment (who also happened to be on the committee). As usual, Brian’s was able to engage the room’s attention and transport everyone to the resort by playing fun tropical paradise resort games. We were delighted to have the always entertaining Live Auction that is truly a crowd pleaser. It was delivered by the humorous, fast-talking, rhyme-making, French and English speaking and crowd-pleasing Ryan Watson of Raising the Bid. Ryan auctioned off four once-in-a-lifetime destination experiences from our wonderful charitable supplier members.

This year, the three charities benefited from the evening’s fundraising endeavours were; the Ottawa Network for Education’s School Breakfast Program, MPI Foundation, and Hopewell – Eastern Ontario’s Only Eating Disorder Support Centre.  The two Ottawa community charities rely heavily on the kindness and generosity of individuals and organizations such as the MPI Charity Auction Dinner for funding. The MPI Foundation relies on events like this to help fund and support MPI members advance their careers with amazing professional development opportunities. MPI Ottawa chapter proudly supports the work of these organizations and sincerely appreciate the value that they add to our MPI and Ottawa community.

Of course, the Charity Auction would not have been possible without the incredible support of our sponsors. The committee would like to extend a very heartfelt thank you to our Champion Partner – Edmonton Tourism, our Motivator Partners – Meetings & Conventions Calgary, Tourisme Outaouais, In-kind Motivator Partners – FMAV,  Enhancer Partner – Quebec City Business Destination, Supporter Sponsor – Banff and Lake Louise Tourism, Registration Sponsor – D.E. Systems Ltd., and Décor Sponsor – Mastermind Event Rentals.

On behalf of the committee, I am honoured to provide you with this year’s fundraising total. Thanks to you, the event raised a total of $23,490, split between the Ottawa Network for Education’s School Breakfast Program, MPI Foundation and Hopewell.

Lastly, this event would not have been possible without the continued support of all the attendees, so thank you for continuing to support MPI Ottawa and the Charity Auction Dinner year after year. Additionally, the evening would not have been possible without the tireless efforts and commitment of the volunteer committee who worked to pull it all together.  This was a team effort from start to finish.

We are looking forward to seeing you next year…and get ready for what we have in store for 2021!

Article written by Erin Bellwood, Event Manager at Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association

Article edited by Rozanne Lyons, CMP, Intertask Conferences