My Role with KW Legacy

A lot of people ask me what I do with KW Legacy. For those who don’t know, KW Legacy is a charitable organization set up to raise funds for local nonprofits and scholarships. I was a co-creator of the organization, along with a group of friends who’ve all grown up in the Waterloo area and chose to build their careers here. 

We started it about ten years ago, with the idea of building the organization around creating and hosting fundraising events like the one I wrote about previously - Top Home Chef. We’ve also created Golf for Scholarships, which just had its 9th annual tournament at Conestoga Golf and Country Club. Those events have been successful beyond our expectations, and I’m proud to have helped bring them into existence and nurture them as they’ve grown.

I now sit on the Advisory Board of KW Legacy, serving in the role of Secretary. The Advisory Board is a small executive branch that supports the organization’s work with strategy, the creation of bylaws and with running the Annual General Meeting. We meet periodically through the year to set the course for the organization and to ensure that our annual events are operating efficiently. We also brainstorm new ideas for events that we think could have the same success as the ones we already hold.

For example, during the early days of COVID when our Advisory Board meetings were moved to Zoom, we came up with the idea for KW Legacy Poker. Our first event was in May of 2020, virtual of course, but we’ve since held three more events, with plans for a fifth anniversary tournament in May of 2024. 

The event raises money for Farwell4Hire, a Cystic Fibrosis advocacy organization, as well as for men’s mental health initiatives. So far, we’ve raised over $32,000 through this event. For more information or to participate in our next event, please email info@kwlegacy.ca.

So, to answer the question about what I do with KW Legacy - I’m less involved with the day-to-day planning of events as I was in the beginning. I’m now a Past Chair for Top Home Chef, for example, after serving as Co-Chair for the first two years of the event. But as Secretary of the board, I’m still heavily involved in the organization’s strategy and direction. 

We’re learning as we go as to how to run a charitable organization in the most efficient and impactful manner as we can. I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, and I look forward to continuing to make our events an annual tradition for the people of Waterloo.