The TAS Year In Review

As we near 2013 I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on 2012 on our Facebook page and our blog and share our top TEN photos and posts.  These are the most viewed stories of 2012 and the most shared photos that were the most viral.

The photos will be ranked according to the "Number of people reached" via Shares & likes and how many new members it brought to the page.  The blog posts will be strictly ranked according to the total number of views they received. 

OUR TOP TEN MOST VIEWED BLOG POSTS OF THE YEAR are : 
(Clicking on the list will take you to each story)

10. In Memory of Frank N. Boosamra 
9. The Most Inspiring Veteran I Know - MCpl Jody Mitic
8. Happy 5th Birthday - Thank A Soldier 
7. From The Sandbox To The Cage - Shane Kruchten
6. What Is A Hero - By Jim Seggie
5. Petition to release a stamp honouring the PPCLI 
4. V.E.T.S Canada Donation Drive
3. Christmas Cards for Veterans  
2. The Order Of St. George - My Thoughts
1. Leave No Veteran Behind 


Here are our TOP TEN photo of the year in order of "Reach" via Likes & Shares

10. 

 #9

Photo of Canadian Forces delivering food to the Calgary Foodbank

#8

A poppy made for a teacher who lost a good friend overseas by a kindergaten student


#7

Photo of Dave Murphy (TAS) being Knighted into The Order Of St. George

 #6

Photo received for our "Poppy Photo Project"

 #5

Photo of the SOT Car

#4

Photo of some awesome Christmas decorations

 #3

Photo of a drawing done by my 8 year old niece in Ontario for Remembrance Day

#2 

#1

This photo was our most shared in our history, had almost 7000 shares and reached a total of 189,000 people 

Thank you all for being a part of our page for the last year and helping us continue to do the work we do.

V.E.T.S Canada donation drive

Our friends at V.E.T.S Canada were semi-finalists in the Aviva Community Challenge, every day on our Facebook page I would post a request for votes and the results were minimal. The last 24 hours of the contest we had a good push but in the end they didn't make the top 30 across Canada. No disrespect intended but to see shelters for animals finish with 16,000+ more votes than a group that provides assistance to homeless Veterans was a little upsetting.

V.E.T.S Canada is a group we support 100% as I have seen and heard the work they do from Veterans who have received help getting back on their feet.
We have 75,000+ members on our “Thank A Soldier” page and in the end V.E.T.S Canada barely cleared 8000 votes. Had they made the final they would have received a $5000.00 prize and now is our chance to give them that.  

If only 5000 people read this and donate $1.00 to them they’ll get their $5000

Who’s in?

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Mail Donations or Canadian Tire Money

VETS Canada understands that not all contributors would like to use the internet to make payments. For that reason you can send a cheque or money order, or even Canadian Tire Money to the following address:

VETS Canada

53 Queen St.

PO Box 214 Dartmouth Main

Dartmouth NS B2Y 3Y3

CLICK HERE TO ORDER V.E.T.S CANADA MERCHANDISE

Since early 2011, Veterans Emergency Transition Services (V.E.T.S. Canada), a volunteer-led, registered charity, has been reaching out to homeless and at-risk military veterans across Canada. We are based in the Halifax-Dartmouth area and in the past year and a half our outreach efforts have helped us identify and assist more than 30 homeless veterans in Halifax and throughout Nova Scotia. We have also helped veterans in other Canadian cities using our growing social network of volunteers. 

V.E.T.S. Canada is a volunteer-led registered charity (Registration #826667602RR0001) based in Nova Scotia with outreach across the country. Our goal is to help homeless and at-risk Canadian veterans leave the streets and transition successfully back into society. 

Petition to release a PPCLI 100th Anniv Coin

The PPCLI will celebrate its 100th anniversary in August of 2014  we feel there should be a coin released honouring the 100th anniversary of the PPCLI (Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry) & all the men and women who serve & have served our country past & present that are members of the PPCLI.

Previous coins have been issued honouring the 100th anniversaries of The Montreal Canadiens & Saskatchewan Roughriders and also one for the 100th Grey Cup this past year.

In 2010 the Navy celebrated it's Centennial and a coin was released to honour that milestone.

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI, generally referred to as The Patricias is one of the three Regular Force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army. The regiment is composed of four battalions including a Primary Reserve battalion, for a total of 2,000 soldiers. 

The PPCLI is the main lodger unit of Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Edmonton in Alberta and CFB Shilo in Manitoba, and belongs to Land Force Western Area; as such it is the "local" regular infantry regiment for much of western Canada. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment is the reserve battalion of the regiment and carries the designation '4th Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry'.

The following idea for this petition was started by Dave Murphy (Thank A Soldier) & Nick Kerr (TAS Admin) 

Also, Nick Kerr who served with the PPCLI , Tyler Heberton & Jessica Wiebe are currently working on a design we would also like to submit and when that is ready to go we will update this page

CLICK HERE TO SIGN OUR PETITION 

Click Here to Sign Our Petition

Help Veterans continue to help other Veterans

For the final two days of voting a Calgary business man has made an anonymous donation of a $500.00 ITUNES gift card to try and push V.E.T.S Canada into the top five.  All you have to do to enter is share our Facebook photo & post what number vote you were.  There are two voting days left so you can enter today & tomorrow.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE then go to our Facebook Photo and post what # vote you were.  SHARING the photo will get you a bonus entry and we'll give the card away when the voting period ends

Thank You  

More info about the challenge below : 

Since early 2011, Veterans Emergency Transition Services (V.E.T.S. Canada), a volunteer-led, registered charity, has been reaching out to homeless and at-risk military veterans across Canada. They are based in the Halifax-Dartmouth area and in the past year and a half our outreach efforts have helped them identify and assist more than 30 homeless veterans in Halifax and throughout Nova Scotia. They have also helped veterans in other Canadian cities using our growing social network of volunteers.

V.E.T.S Canada are currently in the semi-finals with many other organizations but unfortunately trailing very badly with only a few days left in the contest. All it takes is twenty seconds to send them a vote and I will post the steps below. They need to get in to the TOP FIVE to make the final "Judging" round by Aviva.

EVERY finalist receives $5000 and V.E.T.S Canada uses their funds for covering the short-term costs associated with meeting the emergency needs of homeless vets including:

short-term emergency/transitional housing;
housing rental deposits;food; clothing (season-appropriate);
transportation; personal hygiene items and other sundries;
immediate medical/dental expenses (if not covered by provincial health care); and possible relocation to an area closer to a veteran’s family support network.

The group in first place are getting about 3000 votes a day and right now V.E.T.S Canada has just over 4000 in total but I believe we can get them in to the top five!

Who's with me?

Note : You can vote from ANYWHERE in the world and there is no registration involved.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE  or click the link below the photo 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE VOTING PAGE 

Once on the "Voting Page" you don't have to register you can click "Connect With Facebook" 

Then click on VOTE NOW : 

Let's see if we can turn this graph upside down?

The Current Top Six