Aviva Community Fund Charity Contest-Cast Your Vote!

This post brought to you by Aviva Community Fund. All opinions are 100% mine.

Earlier this month, I posted about the Aviva Community Fund Charity Contest and how important it is to improve the communities in which we live. The Aviva Community fund does just that. The fund provides the opportunity for means for those who have submitted their ideas on how they can improve their community. It is personally important to me, because I know our own community has a food bank and homeless shelter that is always in need of food, clothing and more. 

The second Qualifying round of the competition has started and it is so simple to cast your vote!

Anyone in Canada, registered on the Aviva Community Fund website can vote. Once you are registered and signed in, just click on the "Vote now" button on the idea you like most. You can even vote directly through their Facebook voting app, which can be found here Facebook.com/AvivaCommunityFund.

 

• Voting takes place during each of the qualifying rounds and the Semi-Final phases of the competition. You can vote up to 15 times during each of the 3 initial rounds and 15 more times during the Semi-Finals. Each idea can only be voted for once per day, but you can vote for as mady ideas as you'd like. Keep in mind that you have only 15 votes and once a vote is used, it cannot be changed.

• Go ahead and make a difference by voting for your favorite idea. Visit http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/about/voting for full voting details. 

• You can also show support by doing the following:
• Like Aviva Community Fund or Follow @Aviva
•  

Safe Driving in School Zones

This post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Being a parent of school aged children I am always worried about their safety, especially when they are on their way to and from school. A recent Ontario School Zone Safety Survey revealed that three quarters of Ontario parents surveyed witnessed drivers break the law within school zones. I myself have witnessed on several occasions, drivers speeding or not stopping when a school bus has the stop sign out. It doesn't come as a shock, but does scare me. Other parents get pretty angry and often comment by saying "did you see how fast they were driving?!". It's no wonder nearly one third of parents surveyed feared that their child would be involved in a vehicle accident during drop-off or pick-up at school.

According to the Insurance Hunter’s survey on driver safety in school zones many drivers put children at risk by speeding, talking or texting on a cell phone, not stopping at crosswalks or for crossing guards, as well as running red lights. The survey also disclosed that over one third of parents surveyed felt that safety procedures such as staying out of areas where parking was not permitted were not being followed. The reasons of those who admitted pulling into non-drop off/pick up area included being in a hurry, a full drop-off/pick-up zone and stopping only for a few minutes. I have seen how congested pick-up and drop-off zones can get, but stopping in non-designated areas slows things down even more. Fortunately, most of the schools in my area have designated drop-off/pick-up areas, but I'm sure there are some schools that don't have a pick-up/drop-off zone.

Both the Ontario Schools and parents need to work together to improve safety within school zones. For more details about the survey results or auto insurance visit www.InsuranceHunter.ca

 

 

The Aviva Community Fund Charity Contest-Make a Difference in Your Community!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aviva Community Fund for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

There are always many ideas to make positive changes to any community, but sometimes there just aren't enough funds to make them happen. This is why I love the idea of the Aviva Community Fund charity contest. Aviva Canada Inc. which one of Canada's leading providers of home, auto, leisure and business insurance has a contest called the Aviva Community Fund charity contest which provides the opportunity for these ideas to come to life. The first qualifying round runs from October 1st to the 15th, while the second round is from October 22nd to November 5th, 2012. I know our community can use more help when it comes to homeless shelters and youth programs amongst other charities.

If you have an idea for positive community change, this is the perfect chance for an opportunity to make it happen. Visit AvivaCommunityFund.org and submit your idea! The best ideas will gain the opportunity to share in part of the $1,000,000 community fund. At least one Small Idea (up to $50K), one Medium Idea ($50K - $100K), and one Large Idea ($100K - $150K) will be funded. Ideas should be completed or well underway before Dec. 31, 2013. Only ideas which will be implemented within a Canadian community will be considered. Ideas must be submitted in either English or French.

From animal shelters to school playgrounds, there is so much that can be done simply by entering your brilliant idea.

As well, you can easily show your support for the program by doing the following:

Like Aviva Community Fund and/or Follow @Aviva

For a chance at this amazing opportunity, submit your idea at Aviva Community Fund.

For full details about eligibility and contest rules, visit http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/about/full-eligibility-criteria

Ghost Cookies

There are so many different Halloween cookies to make and I can never decide which ones to choose! I usually make pumpkins and ghost cookies since I find them to be easy to decorate.

These are sugar cookies that I made last Halloween in the ghost shape, decorated with royal icing.

As usual, I start with sugar cookies made from scratch using this recipe: Sugar Cookies
Then I decorated them with this royal icing recipe: Royal Icing

To decorate them, I first piped on white royal icing as the base and let it dry overnight. Then I piped on the hat, face and word "Boo" with purple, green and orange icing and let the icing dry overnight before packaging them up in clear treat bags, tied with co-ordinating ribbon.