Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa proudly presented the 17th Annual Trees of Hope event in support of the children and youth at CHEO this past Monday night. This yearly event captures the true spirit of the holidays, combining the beauty and imagination of tree decorating, seasonal music, and the essence of giving. The halls of the Fairmont Château Laurier sparkle each holiday season thanks to the wonderful organizations, companies and families who take part in the annual Trees of Hope for CHEO. This year’s event was no different as it featured dozens of beautifully decorated Christmas, all focused on this year’s themes of either Superhero Christmas or Silver Bells. The trees will be left in the halls of the Château Laurier for the remainder of the Christmas season for people to view and vote on. The Silent Auction was another focus of the night and helped raise thousands of dollars for CHEO. Local musician Kevin Rivette attended along with his wife along with myself and my fiance Randy and I must admit the event was elegant and so very beautiful. While guests mingled in the room, the trees set a festive backdrop while the very talented pianist Nathalie Khoriaty set the mood with some wonderful background music. If you missed this year’s event, you will definitely want to plan to attend next year.

You may have noticed that construction began in the downtown core to help beautify our wonderful city. While the outside of the 200 block may look closed, the local businesses including Fantasy Realm and Pat’s Home Cooking are still open for business as usual. Watch for the new look including new brickwork and awnings in the coming weeks. We attended a Shopping Market a couple weeks ago to raise money for The Mission Team’s trip being held in early 2015. I am happy to announce that there will be another Christmas Market happening on December 4th at Holy Trinity School from 5-8 p.m. All money raised will go to the Mission Team and Holy Trinity’s Quest for a new state of the art track. The first 100 shopper through the door will also receive a free goodie bag. Admission is $2 at the door and you can purchase some great Christmas gifts! For more info, visit http://christmasmarket.weebly.com/

We also had the pleasure of attending Ottawa Pop Expo to promote the upcoming Cornwall & Area Pop Event happening on April 18th, 2015. If you haven’t already heard, AMC’s Comic Book Men are coming to Cornwall! For more info on the event, please see www.cornwallpopevent.com. We will be hosting a New Year’s Eve Gala to help promote the event at the Ramada Inn which will feature local award-nominated band Alison Wonderland, a midnight lunch, party favours, door prizes and a silent auction. There are limited tickets left available. For more info, please contact Carol Grant by email at cape2015@hotmail.com.

As the busy holiday season approaches, I hope to see many of you Out & About in the next few weeks. But remember to stop and take in the simple things. On that note, I will leave you with a simple photo of the BEAUTIFUL rainbow that graced our city skies this week. It’s not often the second rainbow is visible but this one was bright and majestic and showed the double arc… Nature in its amazing glory for sure.