Rob was born in Toronto and lived in rural Ontario until the age of 18 when he moved to Kitchener.

When he was 10 his parents bought a small grocery store in Millbank, and this is where his entrepreneurial spirit was born.  On weekends, he would have a lemonade stand on the front porch

and he was hands on with most of the day to day operations.  When he was 12, his parents left him in charge for two weeks as they took a much needed break.

After a number of short lived dead end jobs, Rob found himself in the management program for a major pizza franchise and by the time he was 20, he was a store manager. Over the next 8 years,

he honed his skills in marketing and people skills and eventually went on to open a few of his own pizza stores. One of these stores was located on the “Strip” in Grand Bend.  It was during this time that he came to sponsor Karaoke at a pub up the street. He would offer a great deal on pizza to participants. On one of these nights, it was suggested that he get up and sing a song, to which he replied, “There’s not enough booze in this place to get me to sing.”  He was wrong.  There was in fact enough booze in the place.  He became a Tuesday night regular for the rest of the summer.  Once summer was over and his beach town store closed for the season, he returned to KW where he still had two pizza stores.  The first priority upon returning to the city was to find somewhere to sing. He tried some of the local karaoke spots, but found that they were too far from where he lived and decided to approach a local pub. This pub thought that karaoke was a great idea and that he should be the host. Fast forward about 6 months and he decided that he had had enough of the pizza

business and that he wanted to pursue this new passion.  He sold his pizza stores became a full time entertainer.

Over the years, he has added DJ work, and game-shows to the entertainment arsenal as well as joining some local cover bands. In 2008 he met the love of his life, Teri.  Teri worked for an insurance company and was soon spending all of her evenings at karaoke events.  It was soon decided that she would leave the corporate world and they founded Gemstone Entertainment. Gemstone Entertainment has become a vibrant business in the KW/Cambridge and area with many weekly karaoke shows as well as private events. Rob and Teri were wed in 2011 and haven’t looked back.

In March of 2020, Covid 19 decided that the world as we know it was about to change. The world went into lockdown and the entertainment business was put to rest.

Not one to sit idle, Rob then decided to try his hand at something new.  He started a company called TOAD Take Out And Delivery. TOAD’s mission is to help local restaurants facilitate take out and delivery without the need to use the very expensive big delivery apps.  Rob learned that these companies were charging restaurants up to 30% commission.  Rob’s experience in the restaurant world told him that restaurants don’t often make 30% and that the math didn’t add up.  Rob created a program that didn’t charge the restaurants anything for using the service. There is just a reasonable delivery fee, in which a small piece is retained by Toad and the rest goes to the delivery driver.

2022 showed us more lockdowns and fiscal challenges, and it was then that in conversation with Gary Jones that it was time to do something to help our local economy.  Rob knew Gary for a

number of years and was involved with Gary’s previous Community Dollar Program.  Gary was looking for someone to take over the program, citing that now, people need help more than ever.  Rob agreed wholeheartedly, but professed that it was too much for one person to manage and that while not interested in taking it on, would be quite happy to be part of a team.  Gary then introduce

Rob to Steve Orr who owns a local printing business, and the three began discussions.  It didn’t take long to decide that this had to be done. Three people with three different backgrounds

sharing one common goal.