Board member;
Investment Committee

Susan is a founding member of El Hogar Projects (Canada) since 2011. She has made some 25+ trips to El Hogar in Honduras to work for and play with the children.

For 10 years, she served as Treasurer of EHPC, and for six years was a board member of El Hogar Ministries Inc., our sister organization in the U.S.

Susan has initiated, organized, and assisted in organizing fundraising activities since its inception, hosted a reception for donors and worked with foundations to garner financial assistance. She has also led teams visiting El Hogar Projects in Honduras, works tirelessly for her home church, Kingsway-Lambton United Church in Toronto, and acts as liaison between EHPC and KLUC.  

Susan and her husband John have two married children and threegrandchildren.

Board member;
Treasurer

Ann joined the board of El Hogar Projects (Canada) in June 2020 and became Treasurer on January 1, 2022.

After graduating from University of Toronto, Ann earned her CPA designation and worked most of her career in the financial-services sector specializing in reinsurance. In 2017 she pivoted to the non-profit sector, becoming Treasurer at Leaside United Church (LUC). There, she was introduced to EHPC and subsequently joined its board.

Ann has participated in various EHPC fundraisers including Trivia Night and bake sales held at LUC. However, since she joined the EPHC board during the pandemic, she has not yet had the privilege of visiting El Hogar in Honduras.

Aside from a loving family and the basic necessities, Ann believes the most important gift a child can receive is access to education; she feels it is the responsibility of all those who are able to provide this gift to children in need.

Board member;
Secretary; Fundraising Committee

Brenda is a sales and training executive in the prestige cosmetic business in Canada. She was National Sales Manager for Estee Lauder Canada; and the National Sales Director for Elizabeth Arden/Calvin Klein Canada (part of Unilever). She now runs a consulting business for new and upcoming cosmetic brands entering the Canadian marketplace. These roles all focus on building teams and helping individuals grow.

Brenda first heard of El Hogar from her parents, who supported the very first team that Leaside United Church (LUC) sponsored. At that time, supporters were sent polaroid pictures of the children they were sponsoring.

In later years, Brenda, together with her husband Doug and their three sons went on two trips to El Hogar as a part of LUC teams. In total, Brenda has visited El Hogar nine times, and her older son Darryl four times.

Brenda finds the volunteer work to be very rewarding, and being a part of the EHPC board a great experience. She feels that the El Hogar organization here in Canada brings ‘hope – love – laughter’ to the students and staff. She believes that the people at El Hogar will never know how much they give back to the volunteers and expand their horizons.

El Hogar has been a true joy in Brenda’s life.

Board Co-Chair;
Fundraising Committee

Neal’s journey with El Hogar began with Leaside United Church, when he participated in its 2010 and 2012 service team trips to Honduras. He was so enamored with what he saw that he went on to lead several service teams himself. Both of his children have been to El Hogar.

Neal joined the El Hogar Projects (Canada) board in 2011 and currently serves as Co-Chair.

He has enjoyed a long career in communications and media, working for Global News, the Government of Canada, and most recently, Ontario Power Generation.

Board member;
El Hogar Connects

Joanne is a lawyer and serves as senior counsel with Tribunals Ontario. She primarily provides legal support for the Social Benefits Tribunal/Child and Family Services Review Board/ Custody Review Board and the Ontario Special Education Tribunals. 

She holds the Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (A.R.C.T.) diploma in Piano (Teaching) and Voice (Performance and Teaching.) She puts these to good use through teaching piano, voice, and music theory to children and adults; she also regularly performs herself.

Additionally, Joanne is the Choir lead plus wedding and funeral coordinator at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, and serves on the scholarship selection committee for the Masomo Educational Foundation, which provides scholarships to university students in Zambia. 

During her first visit to El Hogar about 17 years ago, Joanne was immediately smitten with the incredible work being done by the dedicated staff at El Hogar, the children themselves, and the country. Since then, she has been on more than 15 trips leading other groups of volunteers, and her children have done volunteer work there more than a dozen times.

Joining the EHPC board, she says, provides an opportunity for her to play asmall part in helping that work continue.

Board member,
Governance Committee

Over his professional career, Graham has held various senior management roles at Nestle Canada (Toronto), Nestle World Wide (Vevey, Switzerland) and then the Canadian charity Kids Help Phone (Toronto).

He was introduced to and inspired by the work of El Hogar in the 1980s, when Rev. David Winsor was the Minister of Leaside United Church (LUC) in Toronto.

He since visited the students and staff of El Hogar with Rev. Winsor; today El Hogar is a lifelong mission and important outreach for Graham.

After having contributed to various fundraising and local activities, he joined the EHPC board in 2013.

Board member;
Governance & Investment Committees

Bill enjoyed a career of almost 40 years with Ontario Hydro, Ontario Hydro International, Hydro One, and his own consulting company, where he specialized in electricity-distribution and transmission project development and implementation, both in Ontario and internationally. His work experience involved significant travel throughout Latin America.

Bill joined the board of El Hogar Projects (Canada) in 2011 after leading two service-team trips with his wife Jennifer; they led a third service team in 2012. They have traveled to El Hogar every year since (except during the Covid-19 pandemic).

“Right from that first trip,” Bill says, “I knew I was in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time. I have never been more certain of anything in my life.”

Having seen the impact that El Hogar has on the children it serves, Bill feels incredibly fortunate to be able to help guide the organization in achieving its mission of lifting children out of poverty and creating the next generation of leaders in Honduras.

Bill also serves as a board member for Light Up The World (based in Calgary, working primarily in Peru).

Board Co-Chair;
Post-Secondary Education Committee

Margo worked in banking for her professional career and “retired” in 1998 when she and her husband (Reverend David Winsor) were asked to move in Honduras and become Co-Executive Directors of El Hogar Projects. After serving in this role two years, they returned to Canada to raise their family of three girls.

(David had been involved with El Hogar since 1980, the year after the organization was founded, to help address homelessness in the capital city, Tegucigalpa.)

Since Margo’s first visit in 1992, El Hogar has been an important part of her family’s life. Over these three decades, they have been able to raise funds, support the El Hogar’s work in Honduras, and had the opportunity to get to know some wonderful children and young adults. “But the biggest benefit,” Margo says, “has been for ourselves and our children in giving us a wider vision of the world and seeing what – if given the chance – these young Hondurans can accomplish. El Hogar gives them hope for a better future.”

Margo became Chair when El Hogar Projects (Canada) was established as a registered charity in 2011, and continues in this position today.

Board member,
Chair of Communications Committee

Over the course of Tim’s four-decade career in the communications industry, he’s had the pleasure of lending his experience to a number of organizations. But none has connected with him as deeply as El Hogar Projects.

Shortly after helping promote a 2015 fundraiser and contribute to its webpage, Tim was invited to join the board of El Hogar Projects (Canada). Serving alongside board members with longstanding connections to El Hogar and its work, he began to appreciate what El Hogar Projects was all about. But it was not until he actually visited Honduras – as part of a service team trip in early 2019 – that he truly witnessed this organization’s remarkable impact. The children’s radiant smiles, their eagerness to learn and their joy-filled play, stood in stark contrast to the woefully inadequate dwellings and challenging family circumstances that so many of them came from. He returned home with a deep desire to support El Hogar’s crucial work.

As he volunteers his time looking after EHPC’s website, emails, social media and other communications efforts, Tim is proud to play a small part in helping these most deserving young people transform their own lives and become the future leaders of Honduras.

Board member;
Chair of Governance and Fundraising Committees;
Member of EHMI Development Committee

Rick is retired after a 35-year career with Procter & Gamble that included working in eight locations in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America. 

For more than 20 years, Rick and his wife have been involved with El Hogar, and have both participated in and led 18 team trips to Honduras. 

“Every trip inspires us more as we see young men and women graduating with goals for their futures and the desire to make Honduras a better place,” Rick says, adding that they can often remember seeing children arrive at El Hogar in desperate circumstances and without hope for a better future.

“We are also inspired by the impact our team visits have on team members young and old, who return home with a new gratitude for where they were born. They also develop a new understanding that people everywhere are the same as all of us, except for the luck of where they were born. That knowledge inspires us to ask ourselves: ‘what responsibilities to share do we then have’?“