Merry Christmas 2020

I hope this email finds you all well, safe and healthy.

CIBPA had a strong start to the first quarter of 2020, with exciting celebrations, announcements, and projects in the pipeline, to mention a few. The CIBPA Education Fund distributed bursaries and scholarships to 22 deserving and accomplished students, with a bright future ahead of them. Mr. Frank Ciccolini Sr., who founded the CIBPA Education Fund (previously known as the DaVinci Scholarship Foundation) in 1976, unfortunately passed away earlier this year. He was imperative in setting the stage for this amazing cause that has helped many students, and we are so grateful for his initiative and drive. The CIBPA Education Fund will reach the million dollar mark in bursaries in scholarships this year, and so a big congratulations goes out to all participants who have helped since the Fund’s inception in making it an amazing success.

Its an honour to have been elected President this year and to be able to continue the efforts set out by our predecessor leaders and set the stage for the future generations to come. Although 2020 has been unprecedented as far as how we now communicate and live our day to day lives, our commitment at the CIBPA to engage with our community at large, stakeholders and all levels of government will continue to grow.

CIBPA will continue to host events like CIBPA Speaks, our International Women’s Day celebration, and our Bursary Awards, to name a few. We also look forward to continue collaborating with other organizations, for example Villa Charities which we most recently partnered with for our Christmas Cheer initiative, as this continues to allow us to strengthen our ties with many great organizations in our community.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, our partners and all the members of the CIBPA’s Toronto Chapter, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a year of Health for 2021. 2020 has taught us so much -please continue to support each other as we all continue our efforts in building a stronger community.

Yours Truly,

John F. Lettieri
President, CIBPA Toronto