Ottawa, February 8^th, 2010.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to personally thank you all for your support of the 40^th Anniversary Celebration, held last Saturday evening during Winterlude.

The event was well attended by Winterlude registrants, including Program alumni who traveled from locations both near & far (Saudi Arabia, Alberta & British Columbia; North Bay, Sudbury and Kitchener-Waterloo to name a few)

We also attracted several alumni & Faculty (past & present) from this area who joined the celebration on Saturday evening.

We heard moving & motivational messages from our Chairman Dr. Homer Yang, our VIP alumnus Dr. Jack Kitts CEO TOH & class of 1988 program graduate, our current Program Director & Chief Resident, Drs Linda Wynne & Chris Pysik respectively.

We also were treated to a trip down memory lane, from Dr. Gary Johnson, the original & longest serving Program Director, who provided a perspective on how far we have come over the past 40 years.

Dr. Wayne Barry accepted our Departmental donation on behalf of Operation SMILE and presented a brief synopsis of his experiences abroad, and of the residents who have travelled with him. We were encouraged to consider volunteer medical missions to expand and enrich our careers.

The string quartet provided relaxing background music, and the large room with multiple stations allowed everyone lots of opportunity to mix & reminisce.

As a first event of its kind, it was, I believe, quite a success and I am grateful to all of you for the hard work, participation and/or support you contributed, whatever the case may be.

This event provided a glimpse at the amount of work required to plan an Anniversary Celebration for a Program involving so many individuals over several decades. It will be important to begin planning the next celebration before the warm glow from Saturday’s success dwindles too much.

Warm regards,

Jocelyne McKenna