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Cassandra Allen Receives Coldwell Banker Canada’s Extraordinary Impact Award for Building a Stronger Hamilton Community
Through years of volunteer service with the Welcome Inn Community Centre, Cassandra Allen has helped create connection, support, and a sense of belonging for people across Hamilton’s North End.
For Cassandra Allen, home has always meant more than an address.
As an agent with Coldwell Banker Community Professionals in Hamilton, Ontario, she helps clients find the right place to call home. For the past four years, she has also helped people find connection, support, and a community where they feel they belong.
This month, Coldwell Banker Canada is proud to recognize Cassandra as the recipient of the Extraordinary Impact Award, a national recognition created to celebrate agents whose contribution to their communities reaches beyond the transaction. At the heart of the award is a belief that strong communities are built by people who continue to show up for them, support them, and invest in them over time.
That work has taken shape through the Welcome Inn Community Centre, where Cassandra has volunteered since 2021.
She first became involved during the pandemic, delivering weekly food hampers to isolated seniors while the Welcome Inn’s Seniors Diner Club was temporarily paused. Although she lived only a short distance from the centre, she hadn’t known it existed until she saw a call for volunteers. What began as a way to help during a difficult time quickly became an important part of her life.
Today, Cassandra volunteers each week with the Seniors Diner Club, serving lunch, visiting with participants, helping connect people with resources, and bringing forward ideas for new programming. Over the past year, she has also joined the Welcome Inn’s Board of Directors and fundraising committee, helping organize community events, support the food bank when volunteers are needed, and strengthen fundraising efforts across the organization.
The Welcome Inn is celebrating its 60th year of serving Hamilton’s North End. Its programs support seniors, newcomers to Canada, youth, families, and individuals experiencing housing insecurity through food security initiatives, settlement services, after-school programming, summer camps, life navigation support, and community events.
In 2025, the Welcome Inn’s food bank recorded more than 41,000 visits, while the Seniors Diner Club served more than 50 people each week and supported a network of 140 seniors through meals and volunteer visits that help reduce social isolation. The organization also provides after-school programming for 66 children, serves more than 250 children through its summer camp, and relies on more than 325 volunteers who contribute approximately 24,000 volunteer hours annually.
Over the years, she has watched neighbours support one another through difficult times, local businesses step forward to help community events succeed, and volunteers give whatever time they could to strengthen the neighbourhood they share.
“I get back tenfold in the relationships and activities I get to be a part of over what I put into the centre,” Cassandra shares. “I’ve made some great friendships with seniors who we have unfortunately lost over the years, and it’s nice to see everyone come together and take care of one another in those times of need.”
That sense of belonging also shapes the way she approaches real estate.
She has also witnessed the way neighbours, local businesses, staff, and volunteers come together whenever support is needed, whether it’s helping run community events, responding to unexpected challenges, or simply making sure no one feels alone.
“Home is not just a physical place. It is also your community,” she says. “Through my work with the Welcome Inn, I strive to help provide a space where everyone feels welcome and can be unapologetically themselves.”
As part of this recognition, Coldwell Banker Canada will make a $1,000 donation in Cassandra’s name to the Welcome Inn Community Centre, helping support programs that continue to strengthen Hamilton’s North End.
The Extraordinary Impact Award recognizes agents whose contributions help build stronger communities. Cassandra Allen’s story reflects how local leadership begins with showing up, getting involved, and helping people feel like they belong.
To learn more about the Welcome Inn Community Centre or make a donation to support its work in Hamilton, visit https://welcomeinn.ca.
Lucas Bolahood Receives Coldwell Banker Canada’s Extraordinary Impact Award for Giving Back to the Hospital That Saved His Life
The Whitby REALTOR® has helped raise more than $50,000 for SickKids Foundation through an annual community hockey event supporting research that could improve emergency care for children across Canada.
Some causes become part of your life because of an experience you’ll never forget. For Lucas Bolahood, that cause is the SickKids Foundation.
An agent with Coldwell Banker R.M.R Real Estate, Brokerage in Whitby, Ontario, Lucas has been named the July recipient of Coldwell Banker Canada’s Extraordinary Impact Award. Created to celebrate the human side of real estate, the national award recognizes agents who strengthen their communities through leadership, generosity, and service. As part of the recognition, Coldwell Banker Canada donates $1,000 to a charity chosen by each recipient.
Lucas’ connection to SickKids began long before his career in real estate.
Born prematurely, he was airlifted to SickKids shortly after birth, where he spent several months receiving care before returning for annual checkups throughout his childhood. Years later, as a parent, he experienced the hospital from a different perspective when his own children became patients. Those experiences shaped a lifelong appreciation for the care his family received and inspired him to give back.
Together with friend Stefan Melnychuk, Lucas launched an annual community hockey event in 2022 before introducing a charitable fundraising component the following year. The event has continued to grow into a day that brings together clients, families, friends, and members of the community for a charity hockey game and open family skate in support of SickKids Foundation.
Over four years, the initiative has raised more than $50,000, including more than $19,000 in 2025. Lucas and Stefan have already committed to raising another $10,000 this year.
Following the 2024 event, he learned the funds raised helped support a SickKids research team developing artificial intelligence technology to improve patient triage and diagnosis in the Emergency Department. The success of that pilot project led to the team receiving a $250,000 grant to continue advancing the research.
“If our effort helps improve patient care and efficiency at SickKids, there’s potential for that software to be implemented throughout Canada’s healthcare system,” Lucas shared. “That could help alleviate pressure on hospitals while improving care for patients and families.”
As a REALTOR®, Lucas believes community involvement is an important part of building lasting relationships.
“My objective as a real estate advisor is to build relationships and provide advice that enables clients to make well-informed decisions in their lives by putting their needs and goals ahead of our own,” he said. “Being active in the community demonstrates our commitment to helping people and giving back.”
He also believes those efforts help strengthen confidence in the profession.
“Our industry is under attack, and regaining trust with consumers is paramount,” Lucas said. “By demonstrating we are more than sales professionals, we build stronger relationships with the public.”
As part of this recognition, Coldwell Banker Canada will donate $1,000 to SickKids Foundation in Lucas’ honour, helping support the next generation of research, innovation, and patient care.
The Extraordinary Impact Award celebrates real estate professionals who invest in the places and people around them. Lucas has turned a deeply personal connection to SickKids into something that improves care for children and families across Canada.
Every donation helps support research, innovation, and patient care at SickKids. To learn more or contribute, visit Lucas’ donation page at SickKidsFoundation.com.
Maureen Tenaglia Receives Coldwell Banker Canada’s Extraordinary Impact Award for Strengthening Community Connections in Bolton
As Chair of the Downtown Bolton Business Improvement Area, Maureen Tenaglia helps bring local businesses, residents, and families together through events that build pride in the downtown core.
BOLTON, ONT. – June 2026 – For Maureen Tenaglia, real estate and community have always been closely connected. An agent with Coldwell Banker Select Real Estate Brokerage in Bolton, Ontario, Maureen is also Chair of the Downtown Bolton Business Improvement Area, where she helps bring local businesses, residents, families, and community partners together through events and initiatives that support the downtown core.
Coldwell Banker Canada is proud to recognize Maureen as the June 2026 recipient of the Extraordinary Impact Award, a national recognition created to celebrate agents whose contributions to their communities reach beyond the transaction. At the heart of the award is a belief that strong communities are built by people who continue to show up for them, support them, and invest in them over time.
In Bolton, Maureen has done that through her work with the BIA, helping organize events that bring thousands of people into the downtown core and create opportunities for local businesses to connect directly with the community.
Maureen’s work with the BIA includes signature community events such as Christmas in the Valley, which brought together vendors, food trucks, local businesses, families, and community members for an evening of celebration and tree lighting. She is also helping lead Midnight Madness, a long-standing summer event that continues to grow each year and in 2025, saw record participation from vendors and members of the community.
Alongside these community events, Maureen has helped champion the beautification of downtown Bolton through the flower program that lines the core each season. For her, creating a welcoming environment is part of creating a sense of home. The flowers, streetscapes, and public spaces all contribute to the feeling that people belong there and that the community is something worth taking pride in.
These events bring people into the downtown core, create greater visibility for local businesses, and give residents a chance to gather, connect, and experience what makes Bolton feel like home.
That connection to place is also closely tied to how she views her role as a REALTOR®. For Maureen, helping people feel at home means helping them understand the community around them. It means knowing where to shop, who to call, suggest businesses to support, and how to become part of local life.
Her approach is grounded in connection. She believes real estate professionals can play an important role in helping people find their place within a community, whether that contribution is large or small.
“Every realtor’s life is different, and it comes down to what they can do,” Maureen shares. “Community involvement can be small or big, but it all helps.”
It is a perspective that reflects the way she shows up in Bolton. Alongside her work as a real estate agent, Maureen balances her role on the BIA board with family life, including raising teenagers involved in sports, managing the demands of work, and continuing to give her time to the community.
That balance is not always easy, but Maureen has made community involvement a lasting part of her life and career.
Through her leadership, local businesses are given more opportunities to be seen, residents are encouraged to support the shops and services close to home, and families have access to events that bring people together in the heart of their community.
As part of this recognition, Coldwell Banker Canada will make a $1,000 donation in Maureen’s name to Caledon Meals on Wheels, supporting an organization that provides services and connections to residents across the community.
The Extraordinary Impact Award was created to recognize agents whose contributions help strengthen the places they serve. Maureen Tenaglia’s work reflects the kind of local leadership that builds connection, supports small businesses, and helps people feel more at home in their community.
