CAPITAL/Dragon Boat Festival
Love of its community is central to the organization’s foundation and two festivals. T
THE OTTAWA DRAGON Boat Foundation’s (ODBF)
mission is to help build, strengthen and enhance community life in the National Capital Region by raising, managing and distributing funds to local charitable organizations in support of essential programming. ODBF was the recipient of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Ottawa Chapter Outstanding Philanthropic Group in 2018, and to-date, has raised over $5 million for 65 local charities through its annual fundraising campaigns. The ODBF Pledge Challenge is the foundation’s annual summer campaign which is currently raising funds for Cornerstone Housing for Women, Ottawa Anglican Day Programs (including St. Luke’s Table, The Well and Centre 454), and Shelter Movers Ottawa. In 2022 the organization’s annual winter campaign, the ODBF Shiver ’N Giver Fundraising Drive, supported The Snowsuit Fund, Lotus Centre for Special Music Education, Tim Hortons Foundation Camps, and Youth Services Bureau.
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Local charities can apply for funding through the ODBF Community Fund for new or ongoing initiatives (up to $10,000) through ODBF.CA. The organization’s love of its community extends to serving it not only through its foundation but also through its winter and summer festivals with the presentation of sports, music and the arts. What has long been known to be true was highlighted exponentially more by the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to sport, music and the arts all share intrinsic commonalities that are essential to the wellbeing of a community's physical and mental health and an overall higher quality of life. Access to and participation in sport, music and the arts build strong communities which can be rallied around, find support in, and where communities can weather storms together. It is these things that the organization celebrates. The return to in-person festivities of the organization’s winter and summer events, and its merging of these elements into a shared experience is at the heart of a healthy community. The BeaverTails Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival is the first of the organization’s events each year that brings these elements
C AP I TAL S UMMER 2 02 2 | THE BUSINES S MAG A ZINE O F THE OT TAWA BOA R D OF TR A D E