On June 29th, join us as we celebrate the 2017 Rhyze Award recipients with guest speaker Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, founder of Bracelet of Hope!
In recognition of their exceptional passion and entrepreneurial spirit, 10 women in the Guelph and Wellington community were chosen out of 60 applicants to be this year’s Rhyze Award recipients! They will receive $1,000 in seed funding to support the growth of their businesses and a reserved spot in the Rhyze Academy, Innovation Guelph’s program designed to support women entrepreneurs as they develop business, financial and work-life integration skills.
It is with with great pleasure that we invite you to join us on Thursday June 29th from 5-8pm at The Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence (700 Woodlawn Rd W) for our annual Rhyze Award Celebration to honor these amazing entrepreneurs! This evening event will feature award presentations, a business showcase featuring our 10 recipients, refreshments provided at the generous sponsorship of Bite Catering and Decadently Yours, and a talk from our special guest speaker Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik.
If you’d like to join us for this event please click here to RSVP
About our guest Speaker
Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik is a family physician and regional HIV specialist. She is the Founder and Director of the Masai Centre for Local, Regional and Global Health, a provincially funded HIV/AIDS clinic in Guelph, Ontario. In 2010, Dr. Zajdlik and her team opened Masai’s satellite clinic in Waterloo. Collectively, the Masai Centre ( now called ARCH Clinic ) provides care to 600 HIV positive patients in Guelph-Wellington, Grey Bruce and Waterloo Region. The clinic opened the region’s first transgender clinic in 2015.
Dr. Zajdlik is founder of Bracelet of Hope, a charitable community based organization that raises awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub Saharan Africa and funds for HIV/AIDS relief in Lesotho, Africa. She is a previous board member of the Ontario Hospital Association’s OHAfrica project and member of the OHAfrica Canadian Medical Team that helped open the first HIV/AIDS clinic in Lesotho in 2004. The Bracelet of Hope Campaign raised $1 million for the Tsepong Clinic in Lesotho, providing the funding necessary for the clinic’s 2009 operating costs.
Bracelet of Hope’s efforts are now focused on the care of 39 AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in 6 foster homes and the creation of a business to business network that links local businesses in Canada with local businesses in Lesotho. Their vision is to see One African Country AIDS Free through the support of Health, Homes and Jobs.
Anne-Marie is a recipient of the YMCA’s Women of Distinction Lifetime Achievement award, Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellow, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Guelph, the Nestor Yanga Physician of the year award in 2009 and the Guelph Mercury’s Female Newsmaker of the year in 2005. She was inducted into the McMaster University Alumnae Gallery in 2011. She is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal in 2016 and the Order of Ontario in 2010.
This event is presented thanks to the generous sponsorship of Meridian Credit Union and Linamar