Canada Speaks Up - Introducing the Aviva Community Fund Semi-Finalists

TORONTO, Dec. 2 /CNW/ - After over eight weeks of submitting ideas and voting, Canadians have chosen their favourite ideas as Aviva Community Fund semi-finalists. The competition - created by home and auto insurer Aviva Canada - is offering $1,000,000 in donations to lead, empower and support community initiatives across the country. 

Canadians have submitted over 2,200 ideas and cast over one million votes for projects and worthy causes that will improve communities across the country. The semi-finalists will again attempt to capture the hearts and the votes of Canadians, with the top 30 becoming finalists for the community funding. 

However, this year every idea can be a winner. Starting today, ideas with associated charities that are not moving on to the semi-finals will have their "vote now" button replaced with a "donate now" button. These ideas can continue to leverage AvivaCommunityFund.org to collect donations from supporters. Benevity (www.benevity.org), a software company that helps companies build empowered giving into business transactions, is providing the donation processing and tax receipting functionality.

Voters are encouraged to visit www.AvivaCommunityFund.org to support their favourite semi-finalist ideas until December 15, 2010. Finalists and winners will be announced December 16, 2010 and January 25, 2011, respectively.

Aviva Canada congratulates the semi-finalists, listed below by province:

National

• Aphasia Camp
• The Take Me Outside Project

British Columbia

• Child Care Center needed for Gilpin Elementary School (Burnaby)
• New school with no playground: Grant our children's wish (Burnaby)
• Back on Track (Burnaby)
• Container Village (Coquitlam)
• Inner-city school playground: Green in the City Laura Secord (East Vancouver)
• Horsefly River Riparian Conservation Area (Horsefly River)
• Turn an RV into a Mobile Clinic (Lower Mainland)
• Outdoor Public Skatepark (Nelson)
• Trails for all, Trails forever (North Vancouver)
• HYAD House (North Vancouver)
• The Humpback Comeback Project (North Vancouver Island)
• Community Learning Centre in Rossland (Rossland)
• Is "justice" really accessible for all British Columbians? (Surrey)
• Of Botany and Birds (Vancouver)
• Playground Legacy-100 Years in the Community (Vancouver)
• Strathcona Community Micro-Gardens (Vancouver)
• Thunderbird Mudpit (Vancouver)

Alberta

• LaZerte Legacy Project (Edmonton)
• Langdon Wheelchair Accessible Playground & Pathway (Langdon)
• A Skate Park For Penhold Youth (Penhold)

Saskatchewan

• Wheelchair accessible playground equipment (Preeceville)

Manitoba

• Supported Independent Living for developmentally disabled adults (Beausejour)
• Provide a spray park for our youth (The Pas)
• Communautaire, scolaire et branché à l'École Taché! (Winnipeg)
• Une cour verte pour Lacerte/Help Green Lacerte's Schoolyard (Winnipeg)

Ontario

• Infusion Art Program (Beaverton)
• Field of Dreams (Brantford)
• Give Halton's Kids A Place to Play (Burlington)
• Transforming Space, Transforming Lives! (Burlington)
• Helping the Voiceless - Improving Animal Lives! (Caledon/Toronto)
• Playground activity area for Essex, Ontario (Essex)
• Small Community, Big Dreams :) (Fisherville)
• Putting Youth in boats (Fonthill)
• A Special Hockey Team for Special Kids - Capital City Condors! (Kanata)
• A New Hope for Spinal Cord Recovery (Newmarket)
• Woodend Living Campus (Niagara-on-the-Lake)
• Dreamcoat! The Joy is Contagious (North Bay)
• Let Our Kids Be Kids! (Norwood)
• Project Playground - A safe place to play, learn and meet (Oakville)
• Supporting families affected by cancer (Oshawa)
• Play Structure for RPPS (Ottawa)
• Crystal Bay Yard Improvement (Ottawa)
• Whole-Person Cancer Care Regardless of Income (Ottawa)
• "Living Oasis" (Pickering)
• Help Us Build a New Medical Building (Picton)
• Splashpad® St-Isidore (St-Isidore)
• A Place of Our Own (Stittsville)
• Hill of Dreams (Tillsonburg)
• The Friendship Circle: Friends Helping Friends (Thornhill)
• Kidz2Kidz: One Child to Another (Thornhill)
• 20 Computers for Eglinton Public School (Toronto)
• Eva's Green Housing Revitalization (Toronto)
• Save 500 baby songbirds (Toronto)
• Variety Village Revamp Project! (Toronto)
• Saving Homeless Cats -- one Kitty at a time! (Toronto)
• LGBTQ Youth Stories to Stop Suicides (Toronto)
• Save Orphaned Deer Fawns (Tottenham)
• Prince Charles 50th Anniversary Playground Revitalization Project (Trenton)
• THS Track Quest (Trenton)
• Quinte West Youth Centre (Trenton)
• Vandalism Breaks The Hearts of Children (Trenton)
• Be Part of History! Help Restore Bell's Gristmill (Utopia)
• The Giving Tree, A Natural Playground (Waterloo)
• A New Van (Whitby)
• Their Opportunity Minor Sports (Whitby)
• Urban schoolyard greening and play structure (Windsor)
• OSAID Goes Mobile (Provincial)
• Paralyzing Poverty - ALS Ontario (Provincial)
• It takes a village (Provincial)

Quebec

• Événement multi-disciplinaire orchestré par un comité jeunes (Baie-Saint-Paul)
• Aire de jeux Donjon Dragon (Barraute)
• La Table est Mise (Beauport)
• Therapeutic Garden (Cleveland)
• Une école Techno: Objectif décrochage zero! (Granby)
• Les 4'R Techno (Montreal)
• Projet Verdir (Pointe-Claire)
• Promouvoir l'activité physique au profit de la réussite scolaire (Saint-Tite-des-Caps)
• Implantation d'un complexe culturel dans la Matapédia (Sayabec)
• Patinoire synthétique pour les jeunes de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke)
• Des jeunes autochtones engagés pour l'eau! (Provincial)

New Brunswick

• Planchodrome de Dieppe Skatepark (Dieppe)
• Dream Playground (Rexton)
• We Will Never Forget! (Saint John)
• Ensemble de percussions de marche (Drumline) (Saint-Quentin)

Nova Scotia

• The Nature Room, our Outdoor Classroom (Upper Tantallon)
• Rejuvenate McDonald Park (Waverly)

Newfoundland

• Hodge's Cove Playground Enhancement (Hodge's Cove)
• Program Center (St. John's)
• Camp Eclipse: Out in the Woods (St. John's)

Northwest Territories

• NWT SPCA Northern Community Animal Shelter (Yellowknife)

About Aviva Canada
Aviva Canada Inc. is one of the leading Property and Casualty insurance groups in Canada, providing home, automobile, recreational vehicle, group and business insurance to more than three million customers. The group has more than 3,000 employees, 33 locations, 1,700 independent broker partners and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, the world's sixth-largest insurance group. For more information visit avivacanada.com.

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