It has been a while since Leah Wade has been part of something big in this province.
That wait is over as her heart is and always will be in her home of Holyrood.
Wade is the new community and fund development co-ordinator for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, (LLSC-NL)’s St. John’s chapter.
She takes over from Melanie McMillan, who will assume the same role in a new start-up in Moncton in hopes of getting the same success there, as the LLSC-NL has had over the past two years in this province.
Wade, whose first official day was Nov. 1, has actually been on the job for a month, learning and networking from McMillan prior to her departure.
“I started backwards and I am glad I did. I got to see the core of what Melanie does here,’’ Wade said.
I was able to make connections in the community I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to without starting when I did and made the connections I couldn’t have with Melanie,’’ she added.
Wade, like all people starting new jobs, has ideas and goals, and hopes to include as many people as possible in her initiatives and that will include expanding fundraising and awareness projects in every community.
“My goal for this year is to get Light The Night events into the outports," Wade said.
I think the heart of Newfoundland and Labrador is in the outports. And people in those communities get cancer, too."
There were three Light The Night events in the province this year, the main one in St. John’s, one in Clarenville and Fogo Island ($3,500) also held one.
She said if they can reach all the communities, get a healthy competition between Corner Brook and St. John’s and get them working in the same direction and perhaps outdo the other community in fundraising, then everyone will be a winner in the battle to fight blood cancers.
“I am going to need help from those communities. There is only one person on the Island, that’s me, so to get people to champion the cause in their respective community will be huge,’’ she said.
“The way this organization works is unique, as we have the freedom of community-designed walks. That is different than most organizations that have a corporate mandate. It is very rare for an organization to nurture that freedom,’’ she added.
The 2018 Light The Night event garnered a confirmed amount of $161,462, a 42 per cent increase from the inaugural year, which brought in $113,955.
