Today's Team Toby blog is written by our team member Julie Angeletti! Thanks Julie
The Million Acts of Kindness tour bid farewell to the beloved city of Edmonton, and hit the road heading east. Our next stop on the tour route was Winnipeg, but the 14 hour drive would be broken up with a quick stop in the city of Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Thanks to Deb Nyczai from the Chamber of Commerce in Humboldt, the team was set up with a complimentary night stay at the Canalta hotel, as well a campground for the RV!
We so appreciated Debs kindness in greeting us when we arrived, hosting our stay, gathering media to showcase the tour and getting elected officials and the chamber president to meet with us!
What was originally planned as a quick night’s rest to break up the long drive, turned into an amazing day spent with community members of Humboldt, all thanks to Deb. It was great to see the progress that Humboldt has made in making their community more pet friendly, and putting in a large fenced in playground for dogs at the campground, right beside the family mini put area. This is going to be a spectacular dog friendly feature that campers, visitors and locals will love and appreciate. The community businesses came together to raise all the funds needed for this project.
Our grand finale in Winnipeg happened at Petland Canada’s Pembina store location, where multiple businesses in the plaza came together to host a TAIL-gating party! We had so much fun meeting the participating businesses and guests that came by to say hi! Toby even had the opportunity to meet retired football player Chris Cvetkovic.
We are sending out a huge barking thank you to all the guests that visit Petland Canada stores. Your support of the Twoonie for Team Toby program raised almost $10,000 which provided a number of youth organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Schools and Foster care agencies with copies of Toby's books and a personal visit with Toby and Charmaine.
It’s a shame the prairies are stereotyped as flat and boring, as I was quite amazed of their vastness. Field upon field, the prairies make you realize just how large of a country Canada is. We had fun stopping at various little communities along the way and did a few acts of kindness by dropping off Toby’s books at schools. We got to visit little towns such as the city of Mundare which boasts it has the world’s largest sausage, and Watson Saskatchewan which built a 25 foot Santa Claus statue!
After two full days of driving, the team was ready to arrive in Winnipeg. I was very excited to finally visit the infamous Mere hotel, a luxurious, pet-friendly boutique hotel that hosted Team Toby once before, on their previous visit to Winnipeg. I was happy to learn the rumors were true, as the hotel exceeded my expectations. The rooms were beautifully decorated, with ample amount of closet and storage space for long-term visits. The contents of the mini-fridge came complimentary with the room, so there was no guilt in enjoying fresh bottles of water and juice, along with some snacks. The hotel also provided the most plush and luxuriously soft bathrobes to lounge around in, which were the absolute cherry on the cake. Located in the heart of Winnipeg, the hotel is situated right on the river, surrounded by beautiful paths to walk your dog. Cibo, the hotel restaurant located right on the water, was a fantastic spot to grab breakfast in the morning. I was very impressed with the prices, considering the quality of food, the views and level of service this establishment offered.
The team took advantage of the charming hotel location and enjoyed a long walk with Toby along the Red River.
We also took this moment as a great opportunity for some more kindness activities, and brought along some of our trusty poopbags and rubber gloves to clean up any trash we found along the way.
That afternoon, Charmaine led a business workshop to local entrepreneurs at the Mere hotel.
Thanks to the kindness of our amazing sponsors, each attendee was able to walk away with a Million Acts of Kindness t-shirt designed by Peace Love Paws, a Canadian Traveller Magazine and a roll of The Original Poopbags!
Thanking all our partners who help us make a difference.
