As I sat down to tea and coffee at Higher Ground, one of my initial thoughts was on how young my subject was. When I was 27, I hadn’t achieved anywhere near as much in so short a time, and it’s an impressive list. He’s been nominated several times for Calgary’s Top 40 under 40. In 2012, he was awarded SAIT’s outstanding young alumni award. Radio shows love to pick his brain for wealth creation tips. Calgary, I’d like to introduce to you, Des Nwaerondu.
Des talking about his fight against Cancer at his annual event. (Picture by Jonard Tan)
Des is basically a bundle of energy, though with a strong community sense of mind. While working at Sun Life as a Financial Advisor pays the bills, he volunteers on all sorts of projects, and there’s quite a few. For example, he shares his expertise by lecturing to new immigrants at Momentum, a financial education centre. To him, too many come to Canada without understanding the basics which could lead to a lot of problems. As a superstar alumni, he’s served as treasurer for the Calgary Chapter of the University of Lethbridge Alumni Committee, and continues as the Chair of the SAIT Financial Services Committee. There’s charity golf events, and the odd trip to fly across the world to build houses in Mexico and Thailand for Habitat for Humanity. There would probably be more volunteer positions, but even he needs to sleep once in a while.
Des Builds Houses, really. (picture by Des Nwaerondu
There’s even more, like feeding the hungry at the Drop-In Centre, but what he’s especially proud of is his own personal event, Des Fights Cancer. He tells me a story, “When I was 20, a friend’s brother died, but what I will always remember is that despite [constant setbacks to his health], he always lived life as if nothing was wrong. When he died, I realized how cancer could hit anyone randomly and even hit me.” Like a lot of Calgarians affected by cancer, he started to join the many events to raise funds like the Underwear Affair. But he soon realized that he was going to the same sources, and didn’t feel like he was making an impact. “I decided to make my own event, a wine and cheese that’s both a client appreciation day and a public fundraiser for the cause. In that one night, I made $1500 or way more than what I could manage with all of the little events.” Ever since then, he partnered up with the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and has raised over $8500 over the last few years. With the numbers constantly rising each year, he’s shooting for a new target, $10,000 for 2014. With the amount of community support already assembled, especially an impressive line up of silent auction items, he’s pretty sure he’ll hit it. “It’s going to be a fun night, with a great speaker, so anything I can do to spread the word can only do some good.”
$10,000 is the target this year!
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Follow and/or Donate to Des Fights Cancer on the Web or at the Alberta Cancer Foundation