This was a rebuilding year for all of us. The biggest “philanthropic” event of the year was received by us not given by us.

Together with employees we organized the building of a “memorial garden”.

The outpouring of support and donations from the greater community resulted in a tribute of such beauty it exceeded everyone’s greatest expectations. Click here for the full story.

INTERNATIONAL

• Doctors without Borders / Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF)
  More info:
  Canada www.msf.ca
  International www.msf.org
  USA www.doctorswithoutborders.org
  

LOCAL

• Morin Heights Elementary School
• Meg’s 2nd Wind
• Maison Emmanuelle
• Montreal Children’s hospital
• Old brewery mission
• SPCA Laurentides-Labelle
• Morin Heights Legion
• Mayor’s tournament
• Shriners tournament
• Trinity Anglican Church
• St-Francis Anglican Church
• Paroisse St-Eugene
• Fondation Médicale des Laurentides

Was a tragic year for Gourmet du Village. Our attentions were focused on taking care of our family of employees. The support we received from our community was amazing. We can never say thank you enough.

For the 'Holiday' season 2007 we created a collection of tastes and accessories featuring a stylized star as a symbol of 'Peace & Hope', set against a snowy white backdrop.

10% of the net wholesale purchase price of each item was donated to charities and charitable organizations supported by Gourmet du Village, bringing them some 'Peace & Hope'.

We raised more than $22,000. Click here for the full story.

INTERNATIONAL

• Doctors without Borders / Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF)
  More info:
  Canada www.msf.ca
  International www.msf.org
  USA www.doctorswithoutborders.org
  

NATIONAL

• Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
  More info:
  Canada www.cbcf.org

LOCAL

• 'The Weekend to End Breast Cancer'
  Supporting Cancer research at the Jewish General Hospital.
• Camp Chapleau
  A country summer camp for underprivileged inner city children, organised by the 'Old Brewery Mission.'
• SPCA Ste Agathe branch
  This branch has a wonderful no kill policy which results in there receiving 'less' government support. They rely heavily on their annual 'Gimme Shelter' fundraiser.
• Canada Day celebrations, Morin Heights
  Our small community shows the flag so to speak in a big way. We were proud to be a diamond sponsor for the largest celebration between Montreal and Ottawa with over 7,000 persons attending.
• United Way
  A national fundraiser supporting many charitable organisations at the national and local level.
• Legion Branch 171
  The Legion spearheaded a fundraiser to purchase an essential 'Bladder Scanner' for a local child who was in need.
• Laurentian Regional High School
  We were very pleased to make a donation to the local high school, LRHS. The children of many of our employees go or went there as did our own children. The school needed a 'Mac Lab', a high tech teaching aid; we felt it was another way to give back to the community that has supported us so well over the year. Click here for the Main Street news article.

Over $7,000 has been donated to date. Help us to reach our goal.

• Fondation de L'Hopital Ste Jerome
• Queen Mary of Peace Foundation
• Shriners, Lachute branch
• Morin Heights Elementary school
• Ecole Marie Rose
• Morin Heights Ski Loppet
• Ste Agathe Academy
• Mack Belson Faoundation
• Maison des Jeunes
• Montreal Canadians Children's Foundation

Yes, that really is their name; this courageous group originally formed by one of our employees continue to work diligently raising funds for the 'Weekend to End Breast Cancer' (see 2005 below).

To date they have raised over $114,000 an unbelievable achievement, congratulations to all involved.

In February 2006, we were very pleased to receive a certificate of appreciation from Batshaw, this is a local residential facility catering to youth in trouble, and the inscription reads: 'Gourmet du Village, Thank you for your contribution to our young people.'

At a gala supper organized by the CLD des Pays-d'en-Haut, held at the Manoir St. Sauveur on April 25th, 2006, Mike Tott was honored as the 'Grand developpeur economic 2006'.

In his entertaining presentation introducing Mr. Tott, Morin Heights mayor Michel Plante told the audience of the growth in the business Gourmet du Village, which now 25 years later, has sales to over 5000 retail outlets all across North America. He mentioned the job creation in the community of Morin Heights and the surrounding region, with 40 regular employees and in their busy season close to 100 people working for this Morin Heights success story. In addition over 100 additional people are involved in the company as sales representatives and other support tasks.

Mike Tott and his wife Linda, co-founders of Gourmet du Village, accepted the award. In his remarks, Mike Tott, president of Gourmet du Village, thanked Mayor Plante and the CLD for this honour and spoke of how important the community of Morin Heights has been to him, his family, and his business.

Congratulations to the organizers of the SPCA fundraising event held at Ski Morin Heights on Saturday, April 29th.

A sellout crowd of 500 people enjoyed sipping wine whilst tasting and sampling donated food at the numerous gourmet food booths including Gourmet du Village. The record bid of the evening was Mike Tott, our president, for two commemorative pink hockey sticks, used and signed by NHL players Nick Sunstrom of the Montreal Canadians and Chris Mayers of the St. Louis Blues. The record bid of $2,500 was divided between the 'Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation' and the Laurentian branch of the SPCA.

This is a partial list of some of the charities and good causes we were pleased to support in 2006.

• 'The Weekend to End Breast Cancer'
• SPCA Ste Agathe branch
• United Way
• Maison Emanuelle
• Oral school for the Deaf
• Shriners
• Ecole Marie Rose
• Morin Heights Elementary School
• LRHS High School
• Batshaw Youth Centre
• Laurentian Cancer support group
• Scouts
• Ecole Primaire Ste Adele
• Trinity Church
• Ste Eugene Church
• St Francis of the Birds Church
• Chateau des Aines
• Senior Heritage Club
• Mary Queen of Peace foundation
• St Mary's Hospital
• Montreal Childrens Hospital
• Camp Chapleau
• Maison Des Jeunes
• Centre D'Enfants Larochelle

Gourmet du Village was committed to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of our community. Members of staff served on committees and volunteered during a full year of celebrations. In addition, the full resources of our company were mobilized - Mike Tott acted as chairman of the communications committee, our company studio donated the talents and time to produce a full colour anniversary calendar.

We designed and commissioned a special commemorative mug for Morin heights anniversary. All proceeds were donated to Morin Heights Elementary school.

Click here to visit the website gallery of photographs of these anniversary events.

We joined with the company Cuisinart as a major sponsor of a colour calendar of recipes being produced using Cuisinart equipment and in our case Gourmet du Village products.

The proceeds of this calendar, totaling over $50,000, were donated by Cuisinart to the Canadian Association of Food Banks; we were very pleased to be asked to participate in this project and congratulate Cuisinart for their initiative.

Our employees share and participate in our community and cause sponsorship. One employee in particular - Catherine Dyer, following the tragic death of her husband Dave to cancer, put all of her energies into a project to raise funds for cancer research, for the Montreal Jewish general hospital. The project was called the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. She along with other employees, past employees and friends formed a team, 'BOOBALISHUS', to participate in this two-day walk. Their efforts resulted in over $60,000 being raised.

In January 2004, we were presented with a certificate of appreciation from the Royal Canadian Legion with the inscription: 'Presented to Mike & Linda Tott in recognition of services rendered to the community of Morin Heights'.

In March 2004, We were presented with a certificate from the Shriners Hospitals for Children with the inscription: 'Mike Tott, Gourmet du Village contributed to the million dollar club in support of the world's greatest philanthropy'.

Responding to numerous requests from our customers we created a follow up to our successful anniversary promotion of a special product and created a Butterfly limited edition Hot chocolate package. All proceeds went to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

For our 20th anniversary, we created a special product the proceeds of which were sent to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Our goal was $20,000 which we successfully accomplished with help and support from our employees and customers. We received a framed certificate of appreciation with the inscription: 'Presented to Gourmet du Village for its extraordinary fight against breast cancer.'

For the community of Morin Heights, we created and 100% sponsored a community website - www.morinheights.com. We have continued to support this growing community site to this date on a 50/50 basis with the municipality of Morin Heights.