Contest winners announced!

Students express the importance of education through ACCESS contest


Brampton elementary school students from grades one to eight submitted a wide variety of entries to the ACCESS Charity Student Contest. Submissions consisted of poetry, paragraphs, paintings, drawings, and collages. The winners of the Spring 2008 Student Contest were notified and awarded on June 24, 2008 in their schools.

>> See the winning entries now!
>> Read the full news release online

ACCESS at Canadian Food for Children

ACCESS visits the Canadian Food for Children Warehouse in Mississauga to showcase the dedicated organization's daily work.

Columbian Squires welcome ACCESS to Ontario Provincial Board Conference

On June 7, 2008 Daniel Francavilla was invited to present to the Columbian Squires Ontario Provincial Board and guests at the 54th Annual Squires Convention in St. Catherines, Ontario.

The Squires also presented ACCESS with a donation and a letter. Thank you to Dylan Robertson, Provincial Chief Squire, for coordinating the presentation. Arthur Peters, Executive Director of ShareLife, was also present.

The Columbian Squires, which builds character and develops leadership, is the official youth organization of the Knights of Columbus.

We Want Change!

ACCESS would like to present "Change", a video and poem created entirely by two Brampton high school students, Jennifer Paul and Kevin Saychareun as a contest submission. It won Best Overall in its group and Viewer's Choice in the Kaleidoscope Real World Video Challenge Contest, an online video contest to get youth across Canada thinking about and getting involved in global issues. The winning video, and original poem, are posted below.

Please vote for this video by clicking "Change" here.



"Change" Poem

Day by day
Time goes by
I keep dreaming, hoping and wishing
That life will pass me by

They walk right past me
Barely stopping to stare
They look right through me
I doubt they even care...

How I ended up here?
That doesn't matter...
Will I be here tomorrow?
I'll worry about that in the latter.

I'm just one star
In a galaxy of many
I'm just one man
In a world full of plenty
But if I can make a difference?
in this world full of many?
Then maybe I can the be Sun
For one planet of plenty

And though I may go hungry tonight
Through the darkness, I will be the light.
And though my pockets are full of lint and air
I will be the difference, I will make people care.
And despite the fact that I'm malnourished and cold,
I will fight this fight until the day I grow old.

You see, if people dropped change
instead of coins
And if people made love
Instead of noise
And if people saw the heart
Inside of this man
Then maybe people would find the courage
To take a stand.

If only people did that...
the world would spin round,
and every single person-
would be heaven bound...

You see, I'm not crazy
I'm not deranged.
Keep your coins.
I want change.

Written by Jennifer Paul © 2008
Directed by Kevin Saychareun
Starring Michael Onabolu

Now Registered as a Non-Profit Corporation!

After a long period of planning and processing, ACCESS has now been officially registered as a Non-Profit Corporation in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Our official legal name is "ACCESS: Allowing Children a Chance at Education, Inc." and our Ontario Corporation Number (OCN) is 1766228.

For details on the process and on what this registration means for ACCESS, please visit our nonprofit page.