Guest Speaker, May 16, 2018

 

Chris Snyder, RFP has been providing personal financial advice to Canadians from all walks of life for 47 years.  He is the co-founder and Chairman of the ECC Group Personal Financial Advisors, and has written several best-selling books on personal finance including, It’s Your Money,  How to be Sure You Have the Right RRSP,  and How to Teach Your Children About Money.

The recipient of numerous humanitarian awards, Chris was recently awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his many years of volunteerism, including work with Rotary International.

 

Chris has recently published the book Creating Opportunities – A Volunteer’s Memoir.

 

Chris addressed the audience by asking “how many feel of you feel you get more out of volunteering than the people you help?” There was unanimous agreement in the audience that that we receive more than we give.  Chris said this feeling is what drives most people to help others.  

 

Chris spoke about his many years of volunteering. It’s in his DNA to help others, and this inspired his latest book, Creating Oppportunies – A Volunteer’s Memoir. This book tells the story about how Chris became passionate about volunteerism, and his many experiences over the years. He played a short video that describes his new book.

 

When asked to describe his most memorable volunteer experience, Chris talked about Project Mainstream. This program helps poor children in Mumbai learn skills needed to find good jobs, or become entrepreneurs. This program not only helps the child, but elevates the social status for their families. It was very uplifting to see what a difference this program made in people's lives.

 

Chris also spoke about his experiences working in Malawi, and the incredible changes he witnessed after he was involved in a project to build new latrines for a school. In less than three months, the students population grew from 150 to 325 . Most of these new students were girls who did not attend the school due to the lack of hygienic latrines. They had not expected this project to make such a difference to so many children, especially young girls.

 

Chris spoke about the importance of instilling volunteer values in other family members. It’s important for our children to understand that our world is held together by volunteers. He then played a video featuring Jonathan Toews, Founding Member of the Canadian Tire Hockey School and Captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. Jonathan talks about how the many people in his community helped him as a child, and how that made him the man he is today. The video can be seen by CLICKING HERE

 

Stephen S thanked our speaker.