Woodstock Relay For Life: Western General Insurance donates $10,000 to Relay '15

Many reasons why Woodstock office of large insurance company delivers large sponsorship contribution

Discovering a cure for cancer requires large amounts of on-going research dollars.

Relay For Life in Woodstock raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society to assist in many medical trials and studies to advance cancer treatments.

The Relay For Life, which is Saturday, June 13 (6 p.m. - midnight) at CASS high school in Woodstock, is pleased to announced it has renewed a very important sponsor as Western General Insurance (a division of The Economical Insurance Group) has agreed to contribute $10,000 to the Woodstock event -- an increase from its $7,000 sponsorship level of 2014.

“This is the third year Western General has been one of our significant sponsors,” notes Box Axon, sponsorship chair for Woodstock Relay. “At $10,000 they are now our largest contributor. It's quite a milestone. Western General is making quite an impact on Relay For Life.”

The Woodstock office for Western General is at 959 Dundas Street and manager of operations Ken Worsley described many reasons why they are involved.

“We have a lot of cancer survivors or I call them thrivers working here,” said Worsley. “We have a lot of employees and policy holders who live and work in Woodstock, and we like to give support where we can – to place our resources toward where it has the most impact.”

Western General under writer Dawn Alexander wrote the initial corporate business case to donate to Relay For Life in Woodstock, and Worsley noted the request went through various levels of management before gaining approval.

The Relay For Life sponsorship committee, which also includes Jim McNamara, Geoff Patterson, Lisa Woods and Adam Hagen, have created proposals for many local companies to donate or to also participate in an in-kind program such as Boston Pizza, Swiss Chalet and Tim Hortons with the event’s dinner. Relay has secured many other major donations, including Leon’s Furniture, Kinsdale Carriers, and media sponsors (marketing and advertising assistance) such as The Woodstock Sentinel-Review and Heart FM.

Axon, who is also a former event co-chair, says Relay For Life continues to seek support from area businesses.

“We find that a lot of companies want to join in and assist us. When we approach different companies they always welcome us with open arms because they know we’re doing something positive in our community and they too want to be part of something positive,” said Axon.

Relay For Life welcomes all enquiries about sponsorship or volunteering. Contact the office at 65 Springbank Ave North or call (519) 537-5592.

PICTURE:

Front (from left): Heather Irwin (Western General), Dawn Alexander (Western General). Back: Cassie Sim (Western General), Ken Worsley (Western General), Liz Wismer-VanMeer from CCS, Bob Axon, CCS's Relay For Life.