Minto Communities and CHEO: A Dream-Worthy Partnership for a Lifetime

2020 has seen its challenges with COVID-19, but that hasn’t stopped us from celebrating twenty years of designs and twenty years of dreams. Minto Communities is once again proud to support the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) by building and designing the lottery’s Grand Prize—the Minto Dream Home. 2020 marks our 20th year in partnership with CHEO, and despite the disruption of the pandemic, we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.

Dan Champagne, Vice President of Development and Corporate Relations for the CHEO Foundation, had this to say about the initiative.

"The Minto Dream Home has been the custom-built jewel of the Grand Prize in the CHEO Dream of a Lifetime Lottery for 20 years. The CHEO Foundation is grateful to celebrate this partnership every year. We receive a full team effort from everyone at Minto. Hundreds of workers put their touch on the Minto Dream Home and are completely dedicated to the goal of the lottery – supporting CHEO. Minto and their team have had a huge impact on the lives of children and youth in our community. This partnership is literally etched on the walls of CHEO along "Minto Way," a hallway named in their honour inside CHEO."

The Minto Way hallway dedication at CHEO

Recognizing the importance of community involvement, this year’s home, the Bohemian, was named by a local resident during our naming competition launched in the Spring. The name speaks to the home’s design “boho-chic,” an inherently contradicting style that reflects both global art history (the boho) and sophistication (the chic). The Bohemian encourages you to like what you like and fill your home with the things that bring you joy, creating an environment that is uniquely you.

Unlike previous Minto Dream Homes, the Bohemian features a virtual tour only to protect our community during the pandemic, but we’re happy to announce the Minto Dream Home is once again located in our esteemed community of Mahogany in Manotick. While you may not be able to tour the Bohemian in person, a quick drive through Mahogany shows you exactly what to expect—charming, vibrant and full of character.

The Bohemian design for the CHEO Dream of a Lifetime Lottery

The exterior of the Bohemian was inspired by Watson's Mill in Manotick, incorporating a “contemporary craftsman style” with a beautiful wrap-around porch and spectacular gables on three sides of the home. The interior architecture combines a country home touch with an old charm feel and features 10’ ceilings on the main floor, glass transom windows and a three-season screen room highlighted with a cathedral ceiling and gas fireplace.

Once again, we partnered with the Tanya Collins Design team to bring the Bohemian to life, highlighting that finishing the 2020 Minto Dream Home was a team effort. Brent Strachan, President of Minto Communities Ottawa, echoes this by saying, “Every year our team is excited to deliver another dream home for the CHEO lottery. This will be our 20th year and probably our most challenging due to COVID-19. Scheduling was really hard with back-ordered materials and sometimes even changing materials or selections at the last minute because they weren’t available. I think our team did an amazing job to get this year’s house completed and looking amazing. Let’s hope it’s another sell out for CHEO.”

The Ryan family with Minto and CHEO management at the ribbon cutting for the Minto Way hallway dedication

Each year, the Minto Dream Home is built with a family-first approach and in support of the families CHEO helps. Being part of the Ottawa community for over 65 years has instilled in us a strong sense of pride in our community, and we constantly strive to build strong, healthy neighbourhoods for the people who call them home. For us, our partnership with the CHEO Foundation is just a logical extension of that commitment.

The work of the CHEO Foundation touches half a million lives annually; patients, family members, friends, medical practitioners and researchers. So it’s no surprise that many of us at Minto Communities have stories about what CHEO means to us, personally. Needless to say, we’re grateful that CHEO is part of our community, and we feel truly honoured to be able to give back and support the hospital. Having helped raise more than $5 million last year, our goal is to again sell out of tickets and support CHEO when they need us the most.

To show your support, visit CHEO Dream of Lifetime Lottery and purchase your tickets today!

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