Casa Loma Testimonial
Casa Loma Testimonial
Hello everyone, I hope we all had a great Easter weekend. Italian culture brings family and friends, fine food, and red wine together during this most festive time. Ah yes, red wine! Gods gift to man…
Most of all, for me, it’s a time of reflection and soul searching of sort. It wasn’t to long ago that I lost my dad around this time of the year, so I take some time away from my schedule, very busy schedule at that, and reflect on the good people around me that give to society and believe that mankind will one day give back. People that believe in what they do, and would go to the end to defend it. I energize around individuals like this, they give me reason and purpose to keep pushing myself to my most inner limits.
I know that in life we all have tight schedules and mandates to go by. I know sometimes we get pushed to do things that sometimes we’d do different. I know that its go go go, with no time for the pure things in life, well I’m going to stop for a few minutes and tell a story. The people that know me would at this time be saying, “God not again!!”
This is a story of all the good people that have given a piece of themselves for our very beloved Casa Loma. I know that we all get caught up in allot of corporate and political rituals, but there is a very human element here that we must reflect on. Yes there are deadlines, codes, and commitments to meet. Yes we have contracts, agreements and deliverables that rule us; yes there are sponsors, dollars and guidelines to consider, and so on and so on and so on. But, have we ever stopped to consider the very large human element to this project?
This very large project started a mere 3 months ago, an undertaking in itself that not anyone could have taken on. It was supposed to be simple, doing one room at a time, because we all believed that the pressures of the castle could not hold the tight time frames involved in such a task. Because of this, initially restoration was to start in the lodge house. I know that a few dates have gone past and that there have been lots of emails go back and forth. But let me say, that in the short time granted, with absolutely no resources at all, we’ve done a damn good job with time management. Every time I get stressed over time, and I do because I know how important it is to everyone to get this project done, I look at the exterior restorations, the millions of dollars granted for it, and all the time frame required to bring it to where it is, well, there’s my answer…
I’d like to pay tribute to the people that have brought it to this point. People like Gil, our general contractor who has donated his time along with the rest of his crew for a project he believes in. Gil gets up every morning and comes to work here even though in between he brings his dad for chemo therapy to battle the battle of life, cancer!
We brought Gil in because the wood carvers basically screwed us, while we believed in them and their commitment to Casa Loma, all along they were trying to by pass us and get in via a back door by using their “inside connection” to try and steal from our castle. We stayed with them right to the last seconds, in fact I made one last phone call to them just minutes before Paula and I met there with everyone last week. We had no idea what was going on behind our backs. It delayed us enormous and caused us to work night and day to find an alternative. To date the wood carvers have not returned my many messages. Their integrity is obvious and I thank God that this happened. Why? Well in his place we received Gil, a true man who could be found working feverishly at the castle Good Friday and Easter morning…
I remember making that first phone call to Joan and telling her what we wanted to do. As curator of the castle her job is very intense, she makes the calls and everyone looks at her if something does not fit. Well let me say that we are forever grateful that Joan is very open minded and has shown us the trust we needed to bring our castle back to where it should be. I look into her eyes, and I know that this is her castle, she treats it like her home, this is the biggest tribute you can ask for in a person, to treat something as if it was there own. I know she loves this place, and we give thanks to have crossed path with Joan who has respected us and worked with us diligently always keeping Casa Loma on the top of her thoughts…
How about Sharon, who has dedicated day and night to us for she believes in what we are doing. When Paula approached her and gave her our vision, she was touched, stopping all other commitments to jump on board for the ride of her life. Her loyalty to Casa Loma is just incredible working with the force of an ocean, refusing to quite no matter what comes her way. When we first started this we got involved with a project manager and marketing company that promised the world. It didn’t take us long to see that all these people wanted to do was steal from what we worked so hard to achieve, once again trying to receive without giving. Anybody that has lived knows that the universe brings balance to everything. Their integrity was obvious as well. Once again we were granted the balance; Sharon, who never even considered it was Easter weekend and worked right through. Her hard work and loyalty has gone beyond the line of duty.
Brian and Paul, the two guys behind the scene that make everything happen. Again their loyalty to this castle is just amazing. You can see that when words come out of Paul’s mouth they are of adventure and astonishment for his castle. And Brian, I can’t believe that there’s someone out there that actually works all hours of the day and night, I know I’ve received emails from him at all hours. He bleeds Casa Loma and we are all very fortunate to have him work together for us. The two of these men have made our stay so much easier, always accommodating our every need; you can’t understand how much this has made our work here that much easier. These two men are true pioneers of this castle and we thank them for their aid.
And then there’s Oleh and his helper that have been with us right from the beginning, committing their loyally to this most enchanted castle. He’s had to take on night and weekend work to help supplement his income, but he refuses to give up, no matter what we ask of him. He is an artist at heart and a true soldier to this project, completely trusting our vision and never questioning our decisions. Once again on Easter morning you could find Oleh and Miroslov on scaffolds giving every ounce of energy they had to meet the deadlines we gave them. I give thanks, for people like this don’t often cross our paths, but, they do for a reason.
We shall not forget about our fearless leader Virginia. I tell you that when I did my homework on this castle and its interior complexities, I was made to understand Virginia Cooper to be a hard corporate type and that whatever she said went. The research showed her to be tough and un-understanding. Wow, were they ever wrong about her. In fact we have found her to be the exact opposite. Yes she does make the hard decisions as she should for everyone looks at her to lead, but as a person we have found her to be very considerate, soft spoken and humble to this project. We have seen the compassion in her, and the understanding Virginia. Very receptive to new ideas and always giving us the space we needed to create. I will say that if it weren’t for Virginia Cooper being the way she is, we would not have been able to undertake this project. We know that she has allot of weight on her shoulders, always taking the abuse from the public, and when we first started this we wanted her to look great in the public eye for we know her commitment to this castle. Thank you Virginia for trusting us we could not have moved forward without it.
There are so many more to tell about but I’ll save it for another day, I think I’m on page 5 of this short email… Yes roadblocks have occurred, but with the help of some very special people, with hearts of gold, we were able to overcome events like the men’s bathroom. I know that it had to be closed for this weekend unexpectedly, and we are truly sorry about that, but that was a decision Paula made to save the castle possible fines. We all thought that everything was to code in there; only to latter discover that this wasn’t so. It was only her 20 years of construction back ground that saved a lot of head ach, wasted time, and money. And then the adventure of the ladies bathroom. We managed to get it done in the time frame required even though there were many obstacles to overpass. We didn’t complain about it thought for we said that we would keep as much stress away from the castle as possible, and that we did. There has been a request to sand and stain the floor in the ladies bathroom, I’m afraid we can’t, its not that we can’t handle it, its that there are way too many distractions and confusion there with deadlines, functions, and the May 2nd unveilings, that this would only add to the stress level at the castle. We would have no problems at all doing this when the time frame permits the bathroom to be free. You see I remember how this was supposed to happen, way before the deadlines, way before the sponsors, way before the deliverables, way before everything I just talked about, it was the art student and through our teaching that was supposed to get this kick started and offset the costs. Because of necessity, the students were put on the shelf and we took the financial burden ourselves to do what was requested. We never complained, we just did what we could, through our own resources, to bring things to where it is. I’ll never forget the tone in Paula’s voice when she told me how Disappointed everyone was because we couldn’t get the woodcarvers to do the eagle. Instantly she asked me to make the necessary arrangements. I booked her on a flight to New York, where she flew there in the morning, cabbed it to our source from the airport, secured the eagle, cabbed it back to the airport and flew back that afternoon. Why? Because this is who she is as a person and this is how she treats every project. She doesn’t want to disappoint anyone, no mater the price. You see this is the only reason that a company like us is able to get the results we get from the people that we do. We believe in people, this gives us the biggest tool you could ever imagine… The tool of trust… I give thanks to the people that have helped us achieve our goals, thank you, your efforts have not gone unnoticed; you are the true soldiers of this project and the heart and soul of this great team that we are proud to call our own… Vince
