IBAO Goes Above and Beyond Platinum Sponsorship

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) is the platinum sponsor of the Eighth Annual Canadian Crime Victim Foundation (CCVF) Gala, but the organization has also taken its generosity one step further by providing manpower.

“We have a lot of experience and expertise in terms of putting together events,” says Randy Carroll, chief executive officer at IBAO. “We decided to step forward not only in terms of sponsorship, but also to provide some office support.”

Some of this support comes in the form of staff that will help with the event planning, mailings, and creating brochures for the gala.

This decision comes after IBAO attended the gala in 2008 and 2009.

“CCVF is helping victims of a different cause that are in need,” says Carroll. “We looked at their goals and it just seemed like a really good fit for us.”

IBAO’s support of CCVF echoes the federal government’s decision to provide $6.6 million in funding to improve support for victims of crime over the next two years.

CCVF, created in 2002, is a registered charitable foundation that aims to support, empower and provide resources to victims of crime, and to effect positive change at victim services operations in Canada.

“Most Canadians have little understanding or knowledge of what life is like after victimization,” says Joe Wamback, one of the CCVF founders.

The creation of the foundation hits close to home for Wamback, whose 15-year-old son was violently attacked. Wamback and his wife, Lozanne, watched as their son spent six days on life support, was comatose for three months, and paralyzed for another seven months. He survived, but suffers from a traumatic brain injury.

“Like all Canadians we believed that someone would be there to help, but like all victims we recognized that we were alone,” says Wamback. “I decided that was not good enough and set out almost 10 years ago to make a change.”

The 8th Annual CCVF Gala will be held on May 28, 2010 at the Riviera Parque in Vaughan, Ont. This year’s gala will provide five $2,000 scholarships to high school students that are proactive in anti-bullying and anti-violence.

Tickets are $125 per person or $1,000 for a table. For more information or to make a donation, please contact Joe Wamback at 905-898-7472.

© Copyright 2010 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the June 2010 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine.

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.