Jason Blaine has done it again! The talented musician who has become a philanthropist has raised another $130,000 through his signature charity event held every year in his home town of Pembroke. Over the past eight years, the event has now contributed more than $750,000 to causes that are important to Blaine including youth, mental health and education.
It’s a silver lining for Blaine who has been put through the wringer in the past couple of years. There are few sectors of the economy that were impacted more by the COVID-19 pandemic than the entertainment industry. Blaine knows all about it. For almost two years he wasn’t able to get back on a stage to do what he loves-playing and singing music. But now, he’s back in his groove performing at concerts and fairs across Canada including his hometown.
The Algonquin College Pembroke Campus alumnus and Canadian Country recording artist was born into a musical family and started playing a guitar when he was only five years old. By the time he joined the Business program at the Pembroke Campus after graduating from high school, he was writing songs and a few years later he moved to Nashville, Tennessee where his career took off.
With several hit songs and awards under his belt, Blaine started thinking about how he could give back to his hometown. He set up his own charity just as the Pembroke Waterfront Campus was opening. It was a project that provided the perfect kick off for his charity and he quickly committed to making a $100,000 donation to the campus capital campaign. He then followed it up by establishing the Jason Blaine endowment, a $100,000 bursary fund to help students in financial need at the Pembroke Campus.
During the peak of the pandemic, Blaine’s annual charity event had to be postponed for a year, but it returned in 2021 with a modified one day format at the golf club. It had previously been a two day event that included an evening indoor concert, followed by the golf tournament the following day.
Organizers weren’t sure how supporters of the event would react to the new format, but it worked. More than $75,000 was raised last year and so the single day golf tournament and outdoor concert returned this year, but outdoor events are always risky because of the threat of bad weather and the organizing committee was dealt another curve ball. A torrential rain storm that pounded the Pembroke area the day before the tournament left several holes on the golf course unplayable.
If a pandemic didn’t stop Blaine from continuing with his charity event, mother nature had no chance. The golfers took things in stride. Some sat and listened to a day of great music while others took to the course and played as many holes as they could. A few ended up with soakers because of the wet conditions, but no one minded. They were there to support Blaine who has never forgotten his Ottawa Valley roots.
Through his generosity, Blaine continues to make Algonquin College proud.
(Posted by Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs at the Pembroke Waterfront Campus)
Let’s start with former Prime Minister, 
A few days before the graduation ceremony, one of the Pembroke Campus’s most successful graduates was being celebrated. Country Music Artist, Jason Blaine, was honoured with a plaque on a computer lab at the campus for raising $100,000 towards the building costs of the Waterfront Campus, which opened in 2012. 
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