 | Shawn Phelps co-founded the Toronto Songwriters' Festival. She is also the president and co-founder of Jai Dee (Good Heart) Children's Fund. She has worked as Editor of Canada's largest human resources magazine (HR Professional), Senior Editor at Financial Post Business magazine, and Instructor in Centennial College's prestigious Book + Magazine Publishing program. Shawn became interested in helping children through education during her travels to over 20 countries (including a stint working in education in South Africa). Except for piano lessons as a child (and some badly written songs about teenage angst), Shawn has no musical talent whatsover--but she loves music and admires how great songwriters can always get into your heart. |
 | Thanou Thirakul co-founded the Toronto Songwriters' Festival. He is a director and treasurer of Jai Dee (Good Heart) Children's Fund. He works in the software industry and became interested in helping children after visiting Laos and seeing the conditions of the children's schools there. Thanou was born in Laos, but came to Canada as a refugee when he was 5 years old. Thanou also dabbles in music--he plays piano, guitar and drums (and sometimes even tries to sing--but not in public!). |
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Afua Osei is a Vancouver expat. who is currently pretending to be a software developer in Toronto. She was born in Ghana, raised in Botswana and moved to Vancouver at the age of 12. Afua's always been an active volunteer until her move to Toronto in 2000. She heard about the Toronto Songwriters' Festival from Thanou and thought it was a wonderful start to getting back into the volunteering spirit. Afua loves to dance, but has been told that her singing sounds like, "someone who has been beaten by a ghost," so don't expect to hear anything from her! |
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Andrea Katwaroo |
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Brett Dubroy |
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Dayana Romero joined Jai Dee in order to help make a difference in one child's world. She is very much driving by humanitarian work and strives to make a difference in the world. She enjoys music as one of her hobbies. Dayana use to play the flute and the clarinet growing up. Now she is presently taking vocal lesson and should be starting piano lessons soon. Dayana was born and raised in NYC and came to Canada 6 years ago to pursue her B.A. in Psychology. She is currently going back to school to obtain her Masters in Psychology and plans to do Doctors Without Borders upon graduation. Dayana currently lives in Toronto where she makes her home with her three dogs :-) |
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Debbie Yea |
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Drew Young |
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Emily Wexler |
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Fyaz Faisal |
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Lisa Bettencourt |
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Mira Shenker |
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Patricia Rowland |
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Rachel Freedman |
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Vera Held, M.Ed. is an educator, journalist and world traveller.
She joined Jai Dee (Good Heart) Children's Fund to make a difference
in young children's lives and propel them into brighter futures where
they, in turn, can help others learn and grow. Based in Toronto,
Vera runs VNH Communications (www.veraheld.com) where she is a
corporate workplace coach, facilitator, professional speaker, writer
and PR consultant. Listed in the Canadian Who's Who, Vera's business
bestseller "How Not to Take It Personally" has sold over 20,000
copies in four languages.
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