Cathedral High School students worked together to grow geraniums, which were then donated for neighbourhood beautification projects funded by HCF small grants.
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Making Hamilton better
Power Conference rousts movers and shakers to improve our city
By Peter Van Harten
The Hamilton Spectator (Feb 24, 2006)
Community and business leaders will fire up their sparkplugs today to create more ideas and set two top goals for Hamilton.
Laura Babcock says she wondered whether her brainchild Power Conference was even needed in 2006 but was prevailed upon to organize a third one because of its positive impact.
The first conference was staged at a time when Hamilton was beset with bad news in 2004, she said.
For the past two years, Babcock and Dennis Concordia of Powergroup Communications have asked a panel of five community movers and shakers to come up with two ideas to improve Hamilton. Panelists get five minutes total to pitch two ideas to a roomful of people who vote for the two most appealing of the 10. The winners are sent on to city politicians as Hamilton's priorities.
And for the audience members, who pay $50 each to attend the community fundraiser, the mayor reports on the progress of past priorities. Last year's priorities were reducing poverty in Hamilton and improving early childhood education and care.
In 2004, they were improving Hamilton's image and developing more land.
Mayor Larry Di Ianni says others will have to judge how successful the city has been at meeting the challenges set out by the two conferences.
Progress includes the aerotropolis project for employment lands, Celebrate Hamilton month, securing funding to service land in the Glanbrook Industrial Park and for harbour clean-up and the Best Start early education program, he said.
Di Ianni points to progress for the anti-poverty fight with a community roundtable panel creating action plans. Fighting poverty is now a major agenda item for a number of community organizations and a city task force.
(The Hamilton Spectator has adopted reducing poverty as a main three-year focus.)
The need to champion the fight against poverty was first highlighted by the Social Planning and Research Council, Joe-Ann Priel of public health and community services, and the Hamilton Community Foundation.
But initiatives got a boost at last year's Power Conference by panelist and Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board director Chris Spence. Spence's other goal of enhancing early childhood learning and care programs was also selected by the audience as a top priority for the city.
This year's five panelists are Louise Dompierre, president and CEO of the Art Gallery of Hamilton; Richard Koroscil, president and CEO of John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport; Carolyn Milne, president and CEO of Hamilton Community Foundation; Jean Taillon, vice-president of enterprise sales at Bell Canada, and Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president of research and international affairs at McMaster University.
The conference takes place at 10 a.m. at Carmen's Banquet Centre. You can reserve seats by calling 905-387-0007.