On Saturday October 7th, Christmas Exchange and 21 local churches, community groups and bakeries set up shop in the Nepean Sportsplex for the 6th Annual Ottawa’s Biggest Bake Sale sponsored by TD Canada Trust. The bake sale was once again chaired by Gay Cook, Ottawa Citizen food columnist and long time friend of the Christmas Exchange. Jim Watson, MPP Ottawa West-Nepean and Minister of Health Promotion, was on hand to kick off the event at 9:30 a.m. with a few words and to cut a cake shaped like a ribbon in front of an eager crowd of hungry shoppers.

The bake sale was able to raise over $7,500 because of the hard work and generosity of all of the donating bakeries, participants and public. We would like to thank all of the long time favourites who were on hand, as well as first time bake sale attendees like the Canadian Turkish Islamic Foundation who came out to make this year a success. We hope to see them, and all of our other participants back again next year.

The second annual gala, originally scheduled for October 14th, has been moved to April 28th. We plan on taking advantage of the extra time to find ways to make the Gala even bigger and better. To help us with this, we've teamed up with the Ottawa Food Bank and we're working hard together to make this event one to remember.

The gala is Chaired by Sandra Blaikie (A-Channel News Anchor) with Entertainment by Luba Goy (Royal Canadian Air Farce) and Dave Smith as our auctioneer. So mark the new date on your calendar now and stay tuned for more news on the Gala, including details about our great auction prizes, as the date approaches.

Our largest mail out of the year is signed, sealed and on its way, so keep your eye on your mailbox for a letter from Christmas Exchange. This year, our co- chairs, Pat Woodcock (Wide Receiver from the Edmonton Eskimos) and Melanie Reid-Woodcock are asking people to help make a difference by making a donation that will always be remembered by those who are being helped. If you'd like to make a donation today you can do so online at our website or by calling us at 613-226-6434.

Our co-chairs are also looking forward to coming back home to Ottawa and plan on being here with plenty of time to help us celebrate our December events. Keep an eye out for them as they lend a helping hand during the busiest time of our year.

Christmas Exchange would like to send a warm welcome to the new faces at the office. Who, in fact, aren't that new to the Christmas Exchange office at all.

Susan Goddard, a long time friend and volunteer has agreed to take over as our Director of Development and Volunteers until January. Stephanie MacWhirter who worked with Christmas Exchange during the summer is now working at a new job and we wish her all the best.

Danielle Frenken has also returned to the office for another year to assist with the referral database. She's already been hard at work making sure that all the agencies are registered and properly equipped to start making their referrals.

The referral program is officially open and names have already started to come in by fax and online. If your agency or church group helps others at Christmas time and would like to make use of our central database to ensure help is not being duplicated elsewhere, it is not too late to register. Phone us at 613-226-6434 for more details on the referral program and how to register.

Those doing online referrals should notice small changes taking place over the next couple of weeks including an edit button. If you have any trouble with the online referral process or notice any glitches please inform us as we are hard at work making improvements to the new system.

For agencies doing referrals by fax, please be aware that there have been changes to our 2006 referral form. Please download the updated version on our website or call and request it to be faxed to you.

Pennies for Portions - November and December

Raffle sponsored by Hallmark/Davis Agency – Saturday November 11th and Monday November 13th

Coronation Parade of the Fairy Princess of Carlingwood – November 17th

Christmas Cheer Broadcast — Saturday December 2nd

Chistmas Cheer Breakfast at the Westin — Friday December 8th

Running on Empties -Saturday December 9th

We’re gearing up for our BUSY season and looking for volunteers for lots of different activities. What better way to get into the spirit of giving than by giving of your time and expertise to help Christmas Exchange provide a decent meal to families in need in our community?

We have lots of volunteer opportunities ranging from data entry to helping us out with some of our special events. If you can spare a little time for a good cause, fill out our volunteer sign-up form or call Susan Goddard at (613)226-6434 ext 226.

Thanks to all those who participated in the last fund fact! And congratulations to our winner, Julie Tousignant, who will be receiving a gift certificate for a shampoo, cut and blow dry from Contemporary Hair Design located at 1430 Prince of Wales Dr (at Meadowlands), to make an appointment call 613- 727-0455.

To win, Julie knew that Christmas Exchange has been doing duplication checking since 1915 and was started as a type of master list for community organizations to make sure that all of the help was spread evenly to everyone in need during the holidays.

This month we want you to tell us how many children, under the age of 18, were helped by the Christmas Exchange in 2005. Was it

1. 1 336 Children
2. 22 328 Children
3. 8 044 Children
4. 10 971 Children

Send your answer to prxmas@storm.ca by November 15th for your chance to win! And like always all of the answers can be found on the website under the About Us section.