Aviva Community Fund Finalists Capture Canada's Hearts and Votes

Top 30 Ideas Move On to the Final Competition Phase

TORONTO, Dec. 16 /CNW/ - After over two million votes, thirty ideas have risen to the top of Canada's wish list and been chosen as the finalists for this year's Aviva Community Fund competition. The Fund - created by home and auto insurer Aviva Canada - provides $1,000,000 in donations to lead, empower and support community initiatives across the country. 

The 30 finalist ideas are now in the hands of a panel of impartial judges including ETALK host Tanya Kim, Salut, Bonjour! host Anouk Meunier, Volunteer Canada President & CEO Ruth MacKenzie and Free The Children co-founder Craig Kielburger. The judges will review the ideas and ultimately decide which projects will receive funding. For a full list of judges, visit AvivaCommunityFund.org/about/judges. Winners will be announced January 25, 2011.

While voting is over, supporters can still contribute monetarily to their favourite Aviva Community Fund causes. Ideas with associated charities that are not moving on have had their "vote now" button replaced with a "donate now" button. Benevity (www.benevity.org), a software company that helps companies build empowered giving into business transactions, is providing the donation processing and tax receipting functionality.

Aviva Canada congratulates the finalists, listed below by province:

National

• The Take Me Outside Project

British Columbia

• Inner-city school playground: Green in the City Laura Secord (East Vancouver)
• Outdoor Public Skatepark (Nelson)
• The Humpback Comeback Project (North Vancouver Island)
• Community Learning Centre in Rossland (Rossland)
• Playground Legacy-100 Years in the Community (Vancouver)

Alberta

• Langdon Playground - Dream It, Build It (Langdon)

Ontario

• Field of Dreams (Brantford)
• Helping The Voiceless - Improving Animal Lives! (Caledon)
• Playground activity area for Essex, Ontario (Essex)
• Putting Youth in boats (Fonthill)
• A Special Hockey Team for Special Kids- Capital City Condors! (Kanata)
• A New Hope for Spinal Cord Recovery (Newmarket)
• Woodend Living Campus (Niagara-on-the-Lake)
• Dreamcoat! The Joy is Contagious (North Bay)
• Project Playground - A safe place to play, learn and meet (Oakville)
• Supporting families affected by cancer (Oshawa)
• Whole-Person Cancer Care Regardless of Income (Ottawa)
• Crystal Bay Yard Improvement (Ottawa)
• Saving Homeless Cats -- one Kitty at a time! (Toronto)
• Hill of Dreams (Tillsonburg)
• Save Orphaned Deer Fawns (Tottenham)
• Be Part of History! Help Restore Bell's Gristmill (Utopia)
• A New Van (Whitby)

Quebec

• La Table est Mise (Beauport)
• Therapeutic Garden (Richmond)

New Brunswick

• Dream Playground (Rexton)
• We Will Never Forget! (Saint John)

Nova Scotia

• The Nature Room, our Outdoor Community Classroom (Halifax)

Northwest Territories

• NWT SPCA Northern Community Animal Shelter (Yellowknife)

About Aviva Canada
Aviva Canada Inc. is one of the leading Property and Casualty insurance groups in Canada, providing home, automobile, recreational vehicle, group and business insurance to more than three million customers. The group has more than 3,000 employees, 33 locations, 1,700 independent broker partners and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, the world's sixth-largest insurance group. For more information visit avivacanada.com.

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