Meaghan Zaremba Music Room wins 100 Women donation

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

The 100 Women Who Care Caledon get together four times a year, to nominate and vote on a non-profit organization that they feel will benefit the most from their donation.

 The Meaghan Zaremba Music Room were nominated and won the fourth and final donation of the year, raised by the 100 Women Who Care Caledon.

Founder, Mary Balinov, showed immense gratitude and thanks to the 100 Women for providing the Meaghan Zaremba Music School with their support.

Balinov opened up the music room after connecting with Meaghan Zaremba and sharing their passion for music.

In 1986, when Meaghan was five, she sustained severe brain damage, along with other injuries during a major car accident. Meaghan's doctor recommended Danielle, Meaghan's mother, to take her off life support. Due to the severity of her injuries Meaghan would never be able to speak or care for herself. 

 But, that wasn't an option. 16 brain surgeries later, Meaghan survived and thrived. 

Meaghan has been dealing with seizures for over 20 years, but remains positive and joyful, with support from family, friends and the community.

Music has brought members in the community to the music room to learn new instruments, make friends and allow themselves to free their inner feelings. To really understand how the Meaghan Zaremba Music Room works, Balinov recommends to visit the music room to be able to capture the significance it has on members and participants in the program. 

“When we started reaching out to the community to see what we could get, we found that the business owners that actually took the time to come in here and see what we did, they never left here without a contribution. Nobody whose been to a class has left here without donating. Seeing is everything,” says Balinov.

The Meaghan Zaremba Music Room has partnered with three other organizations, SNAPSO (Special Needs Adult Program Services Organization) BCCL (Brampton Caledon Community Living) and VITA Community Living. They support over 900 individuals each year. They have recently put a program into St. Michaels School, where Balinov's son goes once a week to spend time with some of the students involved in the program. 

The 100 Women Who Care Caledon are a group of over 100 women who contribute to non-profit organizations in need. In each of the four meetings per year, they spend one hour or less each meeting raising donations. Since their first meeting in 2017, the women have raised approximately $80,000. The total raised in 2019 is nearly $26,000. 

The 100 local women are making an impact on several different organizations and are contributing to their community in meaningful and generous ways.

The next meeting round of meetings will begin in the new year.

For more information about the 100 Women Who Care Caledon visit 100womenwhocarecaledon.com, or check out Meaghan Zarembas Music Room at meaghansmusicroom.ca.