Lending A Helping Hand For Victims of Typhoon Haiyan

December 8th at Ottawa City Hall, Habitat for Humanity and a group of dedicated volunteers with the help of the Ottawa community put on an afternoon show, of dancing, music, entertainment, dignitaries and local vendors to help raise much needed money for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. TEAroma was in attendance to help raise money, and raise money everyone did! I am happy to say that over $10,000 was raised and with Federal Government of Canada money matching, this brings the total to over $20,000 for the victims of the typhoon.

Thank you everyone for coming out to donate and lend a hand

The city of Ottawa, and the local Filipino community answered the call. There were hundreds of visitors who took time out on Sunday to drop by and donate and take part in the afternoon's events. Mayor Jim Watson was on hand as was the Ambassador of the Philippines, Leslie B. Gatan. A token of appreciation was presented to the Honorable Jason Kenney from the Filipino community in appreciation of all that Canada and Canadians have done during this crisis.

For a great selection of pictures from the afternoon, take a look at this facebook album.
If you are interested in learning more about the Philippines or wanting to know how the city has been responding to this crisis, try looking to the Philippine Embassy Facebook page.

If you wish to help the victims and want to donate, Habitat for Humanity can help. The Canadian Government will match you dollar for dollar until December 23rd.

The following are a few quick pictures we managed to snap, but if you goto the above links you can find many other pictures as well as a link to the ctv news segment.

TEAroma table

List of those who helped

Still setting up for the afternoon

Starting the afternoon off

Christmas display next to our table

The crowd was starting to grow

Nicky lending a hand on stage to draw the grand prize raffle winner

Nicky helping draw the raffle winning number

Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to look about our blog. We can also be found on facebook at, TEAroma ~ THÉaroma. 
~Nicky and Mark

Love Your Local Business Contest Gala Update

Awards Gala for The Love Your Local Business 2013

This past few weeks has been extremely busy for us, with a couple trips to Montreal. The Love Your Local Business contest has been a whirlwind adventure from the vote gathering during October, to the Jury interview to start November, and then the big Gala award ceremony on the 21st to end November. As promised here are some pictures from the gala event. An amazing and fun night was had by all who attended and again we would simply love to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who voted for us and helped us to be a finalist and voted among the top five for this years Love Your local Business Contest. Thank You so much!

Finalist for Quebec's Love Your Local Business 2013

 And side by side with Steffanos, another finalist, who by the way makes an amazing gelato.

TEAroma, Finalist for Love Your Local Business

 4 Course Dinner was superb, from start to finish:

Salad or Artwork?

Dessert

Mark, Nicky and Dianne Buckner at the Gala Awards

 From the VIP Lounge:

Mark and Nicky

Mark and Nicky in the VIP lounge

Inside the Dining Hall:

All 5 Finalists pictured with Dianne Buckner and John Buck

John Buck, Dianne Buckner, Nicky and Mark in the VIP Lounge

Again we can not thank everyone enough who helped make this all possible. To all our fans, our customers, family and friends, Thank You for believing in us.

Professional pictures to come in the near future. (most of the above were snapped with phone camera's)


Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to look about our blog. We can also be found on facebook at, TEAroma ~ THÉaroma. 
~Nicky and Mark