Keith Stansfield had mixed feelings introducing today's speaker, Helen Walsh, one of only a dozen CFRE's in Canada as he did not want anyone to poach her. Helen has worked for a wide variety of not-for-profits and has been very successful as a fundraiser where she was employed as well as at her previous Rotary Club. (pictured from L to R: Len Kennedy, Helen Walsh, Keith Stansfield, Andrew Bandler).
Helen had given her classification talk at her previous Rotary Club and unfortunately, did not save her old speech so had to start from scratch. In 1968, Helen's parents emigrated to Canada from England and Wales with some luggage, small savings and a big dream for a better opportunity. Four months after arriving here, Helen was born on July 6th in Scarborough, but made in England. Helen's father was a welder to start, but then transferred his conflict resolution skills to the world of Human Resources. The family moved to Port Hope where Helen grew up and still lives today. Port Hope had lots to offer the family, but Helen wanted to become a lawyer or a famous writer and live in a big city. She went to Queen's and studied English as an undergrad, but it was not for her. Following a heart to heart discussion with her drama professor, Helen changed her major to drama and put her dream of becoming a lawyer on the back burner. Helen discovered there were not a lot of employment opportunities in the field of drama and returned to Port Hope where she met her husband and worked locally. Her and her husband Brian decided to go to Confederation College in Thunder Bay and Helen enrolled in the arts administration program. She tried her hand at running a theatre and fundraising and again, it didn't meet her expectations. So back to Port Hope they moved, got married, started their family and then Helen was hired as a fundraiser at the Cobourg Public Library and that is where she connected with Rob Lavery from the Southern Ontario Library Services and was introduced to philanthropy. He became her mentor. In 2001 Helen started working on her CFRE, Certified Fundraising Executive and after five years she completed the requirement and became involved with the United Way, Canadian Cancer Society and Trafalgar Castle School and found that she really enjoyed creating special events. In 2017 Helen started working at Albert College. Shortly after, Helen set her sights on the next level, an ACFRE, advanced learning as a fundraising practitioner, which she found to be a gruelling process. Having failed the oral exam twice, she almost gave up, but Keith Stansfield gave her "the talk" and she succeeded and is now proudly the 10th person in Canada to have obtained her ACFRE. Helen is certainly disappointed that Keith is leaving Albert College in July as she really hasn't had an opportunity to work alongside him. She is not sure of next steps in her career plan, but she is very pleased to have joined the Rotary Club of Belleville and getting involved. Helen started a Rotary fundraising event called "Men Who Cook" and helped raise $40,000 over four years. She also volunteered on the membership committee and helped to increase membership in their club.
Helen was thanked by Len Kennedy, a Board Member of Albert College and feels the Rotary Club of Belleville is very fortunate to have Helen as a member of our Club along with her fundraising skills.