Our influence grows! On Friday I participated in a small gathering to celebrate another achievement for the University of Guelph. The Meal Exchange program, which is a national organization, obtained a grant from the Trillium Foundation of Ontario to support the development of mentoring programs. At first glance, it may be difficult to understand what this has to do with the University of Guelph. Guelph has always managed to lead other universities with the amount of money raised with the Meal Exchange program, whether it is the amount of money garnered from the Skip-a-meal program on the meal card or the Trick-or-eat event on Halloween, every year we break the mould and shatter our own record for the amount of money or goods collected. There is something in the ethos at Guelph that keeps the programs going and keeps breaking those records. The current Executive Director of the national Meal Exchange program, a graduate from Guelph, realized that mentoring is the key to Guelph’s success and has developed a deliberate mentoring scheme that will be supported by the Trillium Foundation so it can be applied in other universities. At the celebration, a Guelph student spoke about the power of mentorship and the power of being involved in the programs. Her words, her experiences and her passion, make me enormously proud to be part of an institution that cares so deeply about those who are less fortunate. And when you tally up the fund-raising efforts this year alone, with a new record already on Skip-a-meal, Trick-or-eat and now the Masai project, in a year when we have the most aggressive target ever for United Way – this is clearly a marvelous place.