Bradford Canadian Tire donated $5,000 in Canadian Tire Gift Cards on Thursday afternoon to the Bradford District High School’s (BDHS) 'Adopt a Family' program to help families in need this holiday season.
BDHS has been organizing the program for many years and works in partnership with the Helping Hand Food Bank to ensure the school’s collected donations are incorporated in time for the food bank’s holiday hamper distribution.
Jennifer Brake, BDHS’s guidance counsellor, has been the lead on the project every year and helps each class adopt a family where the student’s work together to raise money and purchase gifts for families.
In previous years, Brake even helped interview families for the holiday hampers program at the Helping Hand Food Bank.
However, with Covid, the high school has had to make some changes with their Adopt a Family program.
“The students and classes normally adopt a family and the classes buy toys and gifts for that family," explains Brake, adding that the school typically takes on about 40-50 families per season. “With this year, we can’t have student involvement like we did in the past to raise money, like bake sales, we just can’t do it."
So, Brake and the students at BDHS got creative and planned different activities to help raise money instead.
“One class put together Christmas “greenery”, such as tree bows and evergreens for planters, and sold them to staff," describes Brake. “[They] made a couple hundred dollars and it was class-focused."
BDHS also held a bottle drive where they collected $160, and recently hosted a silent auction in the staff room where used items were brought in, like a “garage sale”, and staff bid on the items which raised an additional couple hundred dollars.
Due to the pandemic, Brake indicated it is easier to collect gift cards for the holiday hampers and as such, has been converting any money raised at the high school into gift cards which will be donated to the Helping Hand Food Bank’s holiday hamper program.
“It’s hard to get excited about gift cards," laments Brake. “It’s more fun to buy the toys [but] families will get the gift cards when they pick up the hampers, [and] parents can take the cards and buy the gifts their kids want!”
Bradford Canadian Tire has participated in BDHS’s Adopt a Family program every year and has always donated items such as gloves, earphones, and hair straighteners, specifically for teens who often get “missed” in the toy drives. But due to Covid, Canadian Tire had to modify their donations as well, prompting the store to donate $5,000 in gift cards instead.
“Our platform is always to be able to support the children in as many ways as we can… to help kids who require assistance to participate in activities. So, that just falls into what we’re here to support today,” expresses Mark Sheeler, Owner of Bradford Canadian Tire. “We wanted to support as many children and families as we can… We didn’t want to single out anybody, so hopefully this helps."
Sheeler and his wife, Diana who also helped to organize the donation, note that the primary denomination of the Canadian Tire Gift Cards are $20, and some are in $10 increments so the school and Helping Hand Food Bank are able to distribute the cards the way they see fit.
Brake plans to divide the gift cards up and distribute them based on ages and number of family members.
“Our goal is always $100 per child,” states Brake.
“The gift card started out challenging for us because everybody likes to buy the teddy bears or Barbie. But we think this might be easier now because if we have a seven-year-old girl sponsored but the 17-year-old boy doesn’t get sponsored, we can’t take something from the seven-year-old girl bag and give it to the 17-year-old boy," explains Brake. “With the gift cards, we can share and make it really equitable which is awesome."
Sheeler adds that Canadian Tire’s “product assortment is so large, [they’re] able to offer so many different things to different people, whether it be personal electronics, power charging stations, ear buds, as well as many toys for young children."
Brake notes that Bradford has been hit hard this year with Covid, and that the numbers for this program have grown substantially. Estimates from the Helping Hand Food Bank Board state that over 230 children in Bradford will be in need this holiday season.
“In all reality this year, everybody is drowning," states Brake. “I was quite excited when [Bradford Canadian Tire] said they were making a donation... it’s game changing for us! I was shocked when they donated such a huge amount. This is just beyond generous [and] wonderful to see something like this happen on a grand scale."
Brake requests that if anyone in the community wishes to still donate, they can contact her directly at [email protected]
“One or two more donations means one or two more kids,” urges Brake. “At the school level, it has been a stressful year… I’ve spent my whole career at BDHS [and] this is a special school, and the town, it’s so special, it just is!”
