The Little Give Toronto

The 2012 edition of The Little Give got underway at 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 14^th and our eight Toronto teams are hard at work trying to solve some of the toughest challenges we’ve had to date! Here’s a sneak peek at the hard work and dedication of the Toronto office – and stay tuned for the big reveal…coming on Saturday, June 16^th!

Team Flowerbox Charity:  Not Far From the Tree puts Toronto’s fruit to good use by picking and sharing the bounty. It mobilizes volunteers to harvest fruit from trees on residential properties when homeowners aren’t able to. The bounty is then shared three ways between fruit tree owners, volunteers, and the final third of the harvest is distributed by cargo bike to social service agencies (e.g. food banks, shelters, and community kitchens) right in the neighborhood where the fruit is harvested. It’s a win-win-win situation!

Team Pineapple Charity: The Local Charity is a boutique local charitable organization that is devoted to the relief of poverty.  With the help of the local community, The Local Charity hosts fundraising events and Cook-With-Love events for various homeless shelters with a focus on youth, women & families.

Team Banana Charity: The Stop works to increase access to food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds health and community and challenges inequality. From its origins as one of Canada’s first food banks, The Stop has blossomed into a thriving community hub where neighbours participate in a broad range of programs that provide healthy food, foster social connections, build food skills and promote engagement in civic issues.

Team Pie Charity: Second Base Youth Shelter provides food, clothing and shelter to homeless youth, aged 16 – 21, while offering opportunities for them to become self-reliant within the community. Second Base promotes a sense of belonging to a community that is supportive, challenging, non-judgmental, structured and empowering. The Second Base community fosters personal growth through the development of meaningful relationships and useful skills that encourage choice, and independence.  

Team Strawberry Charity: Houselink is a non-profit, charitable agency based in Toronto that provides supportive housing for individuals living with mental illness.  It offers a range of housing options, individualized supports and community-based programs. Quality of life is at the heart of Houselink’s mission.  It believes people – even people with serious mental illness– know what’s best for them.

Team Window Charity: Street to Trail is a non-profit organization that helps people living on the streets of Toronto rediscover their inner sense of worth using the healing power of the natural world. Street to Trail organizes wilderness hikes and other outdoor excursions including canoe trips that help homeless people experience the beauty and therapeutic calmness of nature.

Team Door Charity: The Children´s Breakfast Clubs is a non-profit charitable organization that believes every child is entitled to a nutritious breakfast. An estimated 4,000 meals are served each week in the 20+ clubs across the Greater Toronto area. In addition to serving hot, wholesome meals, the Children´s Breakfast Clubs also offers social and intellectual stimulation to children in the communities where the Clubs are located.

Team Mailbox Charity: Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre (CONC) is a multi-service agency providing free programming for five key participant groups in Toronto’s West End; children, at-risk street youth, homeless women, homeless men and marginalized adults.

One of the things I love about The Little Give is that it’s truly a win-win initiative – not only for our incredibly dedicated charity partners, but for those of us who get to step outside of our world for 48 hours to learn more about our community, our colleagues, and ourselves.

One of #TeamSpuds’ challenges for Camp Awakening  was to build profile around the camp’s 30^th anniversary in 2012.  We started to reflect on what it means to turn 30, and on our own “awakening moments.”  Originally, we were going to share said moments during the final presentation – but time constraints dictated otherwise.

So, Little Give and Camp Awakening – thanks to you, I’ve been reflecting.  

For me, turning 30 really was the start of my awakening moments.   Just three short years into the decade, I’ve experienced true love, true loss – and true understanding.  

True Love?  My son, of course, who came into my world and changed it forever the year I turned 30.  It sounds cliché, but for those of you who have kids, you know what a profoundly awakening experience it truly is. Let’s just say, I’ve been schooled. Having my son challenged everything I thought I knew about myself.  It’s scary. It’s unbelievably joyful.  It’s just the most powerful, take-your-breath-away mix of emotions I’ve ever experienced.      

Just two short years later, I experienced the most profound loss of my life – the death of my brother.   There’s just no way to describe the moment when you’re told there’s nothing more that can be done.  Or what it’s like to watch your parents crumble with grief before you.   You see the agonizing side of what it means to be human.   And you realize that a lot of the things that keep you up at night, just really shouldn’t.

And true understanding?  My jury duty experience this past fall. No – really.  People always laugh and roll their eyes when jury duty comes up.  But for three weeks, I got to experience a world that I never hoped I’d see.  I came to understand how preconceived notions can jeopardize the freedom of others.  How very different someone’s life can turn out if they’re given a chance – or not.   And how you may think you know the answers – until you hear the perspectives of 11 other jurors who have walked a completely different path than your own. 

So now, I’m about to turn 34.   And if what I have in store for the remainder of my 30s even comes close to what I’ve already been through in the first few years of the decade – well, let’s just say I’ve told the universe I’m cool to just coast for awhile.  But if that’s not what’s in store for me, so be it.  My awakening moments have shaped who I am – and I’m a better person for it.    

Thanks Little Give – and Camp Awakening – for reminding me of that fact.

— Jen C

 

Though the weather outside may be dreary, spirits are at an all-time high around the Edelman Toronto office. Last night while opposing teams were in a deep slumber, Team Nerf was burning the midnight oil…actually the 4am oil…until we achieved perfection. Sleep is for the weak. In my second year participating in this event, I have come to the realization that though this is work-related…it really isn’t work at all. The Little Give is actually an opportunity. It is an opportunity to give back to our local community, an opportunity to strengthen bonds with colleagues, and also an opportunity to show off hidden (and potentially underutilized) talents in front of the entire office. Over the course of these past 48-hours, there has been an inverse correlation between hours of sleep (all-time low) and level of happiness (all-time high) that really wouldn’t exist at any other time during the work-week.

It may be a bit cliché…but despite the fact that this is a competition, there really are no losers here. We are pumped to see the work that our amazing colleagues have produced. Everyone at Team Nerf is extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time and can’t wait to show you what we came up with. In only a few hours the 2011 Little Give will be wrapped up…let’s make sure to put a pretty bow on it!

Sincerely,

AFaz & The Rest of Team Nerf

A not-so-secret fact about me: I’m the crazy plant lady who hovers over her balcony garden and keeps an eleven-year-old beast of a Christmas cactus.  Really, it’s like a sickness.  And so when it was announced that my team for the Little Give would be paired with the Green Thumbs Growing Kids initiative, I was pretty stoked, to say the least.

Now, coming down to the last six hours of the Little Give 2011, we’re finding ourselves still pretty busy tying up loose ends and readying our (winning) presentation, but we know we’re going in the right direction.  After getting Laura’s fantastic wrapup email around midnight last night (without even being aware that Cam was still working away in the office, and would be there until 3:30 AM!), it’s pretty clear to me that not only did we have an awesome nonprofit initiative to work with, but an awesome team in general.  The combined powers (and spectacular resources) of Team Skipping Rope really came together to create something amazing for Green Thumbs Growing Kids.

How amazing, you ask?  You’ll find out this afternoon when we present our results to everyone (and win the coveted Little Give trophy!).  See you at Labatt!

- Caitlin

On a glorious Friday afternoon, the awesome members of the sure-to-be-legendary Team Skipping Rope headed to Green Thumbs Growing Kids’s flagship location, the community garden at Winchester Junior/Senior School in the Parliament/Wellesley area.  And for those of you in the Toronto area: Could you ask for a better day to be outside gardening?!  The answer: No, you could not. (And as awesome as the Edelman TO office is, it was fun to get out and enjoy the sunshine while doing “work”!)

Anyway, I digress - this massive and well-kept Cabbagetown garden seemed like a great place for kids from Winchester and the community to both hang out and pitch in to help maintain.  But now it was Edelman’s turn!  Under the watchful eyes of curious parents and locals alike, our team set about doing a variety of tasks to help with the gardening and get a feel for the initiative we were supporting.

Intern Meghan takes us on a “tasting tour” of the garden - cilantro, spinach and garlic, oh my! (Don’t fear for our breath - the garlic wasn’t ready to eat)

A beautiful example of a budding head of lettuce.

The students were just getting out of school for the day, and once they saw us mucking about in their garden, a bunch of them were eager to help!  (Cue uterus aches from all female team members.)

Case in point: these cute munchkins giving us a hand with adding layers of mulch to the garden pathways.  (As one of them happily exclaimed, “I love helping!” Who says people aren’t bringing up their kids right these days?)

As I bang out this blog post and upload more pics and do mass amounts of tweeting to help promote GTGK, more team members are still hard at work at the garden site, so here’s to Team Skipping Rope (and the weather!) - may the domination continue!

- Caitlin

Team Play-Doh has been hard at work both in the office and on the town. Our travelling counterparts got the chance to check out The Spot and meet some of the youth who frequent this safe haven in the Jane and Finch area.

Capturing both video footage and interviewing some of the incredible people who unite at The Spot, the team was able to get a sense of how amazing this place really is. Here’s what our team had to say, “It’s defiantly a place where these kids to come together. They are good kids who want to learn, and are eager for opportunities. On top of that, they really look up to the staff here.”
 
After a long day in the office, with some incredible wins on our side, this positive boost of inspiration is sure to keep us going well into the night!
 
TEAM PLAY-DOH

Mentors. No matter in which capacity, shape or form, we have all been touched and inspired by someone. We’ve all had that one person who has guided us, encouraged us and most importantly transformed us. Whether we have labeled them as “mentors” or not, we’ve all had these special people influence us.

The YoYo’s team charity for this year’s Little Give is the Peer Project (Youth Assisting Youth). They’ve been around for 30 years and their focus is in mentorship. They pair up Toronto youth with youth mentors for a minimum of one year to establish a relationship which undoubtedly transforms them both. The Peer Project’s CEO, Sally Spencer shared with us that on many occasions, the mentors have told them that they got way more out of the program than the mentee.We all know students can learn from their teacher, but often times we overlook how teachers learn so much from their students. This exact principle applies to the Peer Project’s program members.

 I’ll never forget my first mentor:

Danielle, one of my mom’s younger co-workers. She was easier to talk to and would listen objectively offering nuggets of sound advice. She influenced my choices and made me think about things that nobody else could make me think of. She helped me pick Queen’s as my university and throughout my undergrad I’d call her up in times of need and she was always there for me. Four years later, facing convocation, I only had three tickets to invite people to attend and celebrate with me. Danielle was one of them. To this day Danielle is still part of my life. I don’t necessarily talk to her often, but that’s what a mentor is: someone who is always there in the sidelines and ready to step in when needed.

We all have them. Who are your mentors?

If you want to get involved and mentor someone, please call 416-932-1924 to speak to someone at the Peer Project (YAY)

- Melissa R on behalf of Team YoYo

It was a gorgeous early summer morning outside as Team Skipping Rope got down to business back at Edelman HQ.  Thanks to our great start last night and continual follow-ups by team leader Laura, the bunch of us were feeling pretty confident going into a full day of hot (perhaps literally) Little Give action.

Accompanied by plenty of caffeine (thanks Starbucks! #client) and the hard-rockin’ tunes (uhhhh, maybe not) of Paul Simon, we were thoroughly energized and ready to tackle our challenges from Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  Two things were definite bonuses: the power of the Internet (what did we ever do without it? Thanks, Al Gore!) and Hayley’s persistence in hunting down a vital piece for our ask from Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  Again, we’re not offering any hints just yet, but the news definitely perked us all up — and it wasn’t just the coffee.

Time to stash some beers in the fridge — there’ll be some hard work coming later on this afternoon, and Team Skipping Rope will need some cold beverages once all this is done with!

- Caitlin