Janet Bedford
US Ambassador with Kerry Colborne
The 61st Annual Chair’s Dinner for the Oakville Chamber of Commerce took place at the Oakville Conference Centre on Thursday, October 1, 2015.
Master of Ceremonies from the Weather Channel deftly worked the packed house of several hundred attendees.
The dinner is intended to honor the past chair Kerry Colborne as well as to thank the out going board and welcome the incoming board; however this year’s evening was a little different as the chair of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce has agreed to devote another year to this worthy organization. The position of chair requires hours of commitment to attend board meetings as well as events, so Kerry’s decision greatly benefits the Chamber.
“John Sawyer (Chamber President) asks all chairs if they would like to continue, and I decided that I would like to continue using the skills I learned last year, and be able to hit the road running,” stated Kerry Colborne.
The keynote speaker was United States Ambassador Bruce Heymen, who talked about Fulbright Canada that is an extension of the Fulbright program. Fulbright provides international educational post secondary scholarships to high achieving students from around the world. Canadian students have received the largest number of Scholarships outside of the US. At this point there are 1,200 Canadian Alumni. At total of 53 Fulbright Alumni have received Nobel Prizes.
“Fulbright Canada is a bi-national, treaty-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization with a mandate to identify the best and brightest minds in both countries and engage them in residential academic exchange,” as stated on their Website. The program is celebrating its 25th anniversary and is sponsored by the US State Department.
After the Keynote address Ambassador Heymen received a standing ovation, along with an opportunity to ride in the latest CN locomotive that brought a big smile to the Ambassador’s face.
