Oshawa’s 100 Men look to serve community
100 Men of Oshawa meets every three months to vote on which charity they will donate to. The last recipient of 100 Men of Oshawa’s philanthropy was Feed the Need in Durham, which received $8,000. (Photos by Chris Jones)
By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express
Local philanthropic organization 100 Men of Oshawa has been flying under the radar with its charity work for some time.
Meeting four times a year, currently virtually, the 115 members of the organization donate funds to local charities.
Recently, the group donated $8,000 to Feed the Need in Durham, and has now donated approximately $185,000 in just 19 meetings.
Because Feed the Need was the latest recipient, 100 Men of Oshawa were there to announce the next three nominees of their support.
Drawing the name of the three charities from a hat, Co-Founder Keith Cowley says they will then listen to presentations from the three selected at a later date where the members can vote.
According to Cowley, the charities selected must be local, registered, and have a local project on the go, because the organization wants “to make a difference” in the local community.
Cowley believes 100 Men in Oshawa’s history is interesting, because the movement originally began with a group of women in Michigan.
“It’s evolved into a worldwide phenomenon,” he says, adding one organization oversees chapters across the world.
The worldwide organization is called the 100 Who Care Alliance, and Cowley says different chapters have gone into “100 men, 100 women, 100 kids, 100 people,” and have branched out to meet the needs of everyone.
At each of the four meetings, they see presentations from the nominated charities. There is then a vote, and the charity with the majority of votes is selected to receive the funds.
All members will then write a $100 cheque to the winning charity.
“In 60 minutes or less, we have just given potentially $10,000 to that charity of choice,” says Cowley.
The organization came to Oshawa after Richard Gauder started a group in Scugog and Port Perry.
“Then he hounded me relentlessly until I got one going up along the lake,” laughs Cowley.
After some debate as to where along Lake Ontario he wanted to start it, Cowley reached out to Keith Miller, a past president of the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce.
“Because of his affiliation with Oshawa and me living in Oshawa, we said, ‘Okay, Oshawa’s the one,’” he says.
Cowley says since then members of Oshawa’s group have gone to Whitby and Ajax to start other groups.
The group held its first meeting in November 2015, says Cowley.
Currently they are meeting virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he says they would normally meet downtown at Yuk Yuk’s, 67 Simcoe St. N.
For those interested in finding out more about 100 Men of Oshawa, they can email Cowley at keithb.cowley@bdc.ca or can email info@100menoshawa.ca. For more information, visit 100menoshawa.ca