The Adopt-A-Family Holiday Program was created when businesses in the greater Toronto area requested to support WoodGreen clients and families over the Christmas holiday. In 2006, WoodGreen assisted 65 families and their children because of your generosity and kindness! All of the clients were either unemployed, homeless, living in shelters, struggling with a mental health issue or a combination. Many of these clients survived the tsumani. They came to Toronto with nothing but the clothes on their back, filled with grief over the loss of loved ones.

Now in its third year, the Adopt-A-Family Holiday Program matches caring individuals and businesses with single parent and low-income families and individuals that find the holiday season a challenging and often lonely time. By participating in our program, your support is immediate and directly felt by the family you help!

How did your gift directly impact these families?

The gifts the families received gave them the freedom to buy food to make a hot meal, buy clothes to keep them warm, buy diapers for their newborns and give their children a gift this Christmas. In addition, non-perishable food baskets filled with an assortment of goodies gave the families a little extra to put in their cupboards.

How does this work?

1. Click here to download the Registration Form and fax to (416) 572-0066.
2. By faxing your Registration Form, you are agreeing to ‘adopt’ a WoodGreen family.
3. WoodGreen will provide you with information on the family in crisis, how they became involved with WoodGreen and their requests. These requests are specific and tailored to the families’ urgent needs. Please note: There is no financial minimum. We do highly encourage that your gifts do include gift certificates to purchase food.
4. Due to hygienic reasons, we can not accept stuffed animals.
5. All gifts must be received by WoodGreen no later than Friday, December 14, 2007.
6. All gifts must be new and non-perishable.

Our Goal…

Our goal is to provide these families with gifts to help make their lives a little easier, a little less stressful and to help them feel joy during the holiday season. The requests are not extravagant but will mean the world to our clients. Requested items may include:

While the gifts are such a blessing to these families, the real blessing is in knowing that someone cared enough to get involved and help in a time of need. Your encouragement, hope and caring means so much to our clients especially during the holiday season.

If you are interested in supporting this project, please contact:

Susan Melnick
Manager, Fund Development
(416) 572-0000 ext. 4005
E-mail: smelnick@woodgreen.org

Testimonials from our donors

Over the years, Sun Life's Corporate Human Resources team has participated in 'adopt a family' programs, and have enjoyed being able to make the holiday season special for other families in our community. We have especially enjoyed being able to enable parents to make their children's holiday special.

This year, we were looking for a new organization to partner with, and were given Woodgreen's contact information. Working with the staff, and participating in the program was simple and everyone at Woodgreen was very helpful. We were paired with a family, provided some background information - helping us understand their circumstance, how they became involved in the program, as well as a basic list of needs/wants.

Overall, it was both a fun and rewarding experience for us. We hope it made a difference for our family.

Doreen Casier
Corporate Human Resources

This holiday season we wanted to do something a little different, something personalized and more hands on! The WoodGreen Community Services Adopt A Family program was a perfect fit. We loved the experience of shopping for our adopted families. It is rewarding to know that our gifts will make a difference by providing much needed essentials and knowing we helped make this holiday season an enjoyable one for our adopted families. It is so wonderful being able to make a difference in our community. WoodGreen Community Services is an excellent organization and I wish you continued success in 2007.

Aurea Crotty
President, Coutura Image Consulting Inc.

The Shareholder Processing Team at Mackenzie Financial has supported variety of charities throughout the year. The WoodGreen ‘Adopt A Family’ Program encompasses everything that Shareholder Processing staff believe: Assisting families in the community towards independence, so that they can live rewarding lives and also give back to their community.

After reading the description of each family, the entire Shareholder Processing staff realized how fortunate they are and were willing and excited to fulfill the needs of each family. The staff donated money and gifts to each of the four families chosen from the program. One team in Shareholder Processing chose to raise money by dressing up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. Staff and visitors to 180 Simcoe were encouraged to have their picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus for a minimum donation. This endeavour was a great success!

Mackenzie employees were truly touched by the WoodGreen ‘Adopt A Family’ experience. The entire staff in Shareholder Processing sends their best wishes to all of the families.

Christine Chong and Sonia Pollard
Mackenzie Financial – Shareholder Processing Team

This is the first year that the Toronto Alumni Branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association had the opportunity to participate in the WoodGreen Holiday Program – and it certainly won’t be the last! The Toronto Queen’s Alumni Branch chose to get involve in order to give back to the community on a more personal level. In years past, the Branch donated toys to a local toy drive but found that the logistics of collecting the toys a challenge. More importantly, we didn’t feel that we were having a significant and direct impact on the lives of locals in need. We adopted three families during the 2006 holiday season and by understanding the family’s profile and immediate needs, we were able to purchase gifts that they needed as well as gifts that would otherwise be deemed ‘luxury items’. This pertinent knowledge of the families was most meaningful as it enabled us to tailor our gifts to the unique needs of each family based on their life stage and current lifestyle needs.

Giving back to the community that we live in is an important of our overall branch mandate/mission. We feel strongly that supporting others in need helps to build the communities in which we live, work and play. Empowering others to live independently and without hardship serves as a vital step to building a better life.

We felt truly honored to be able to give back in such a meaningful way and knowing that our donations have had such a positive impact is the ultimate reward.

Sarah Renaud
President
Queen's Toronto Alumni Branch

Leafs TV and Raptors NBA TV were looking for a holiday charity initiative that we could contribute to and one that would have an immediate impact during an often stressful time of year. The Adopt-a-Family program, through WoodGreen Community Services, is a fantastic program and a perfect match for our company’s goals. Individuals from the office had a great time shopping for the individuals in each family and providing them with items they truly needed. We were able to spoil two families with a great spread of gifts at a time of year when they most certainly needed and deserved it. To be able to provide these families with the daily necessities they required, and some items they may not have bought for themselves, was an incredibly rewarding feeling for everyone involved. We wish the families great success in the future and highly recommend this program to anyone with a desire to make their community a better place!

Sara Neale
Programming Assistant
Leafs TV/Raptors NBA TV

2006 Santa’s Little Helpers!

We would like to thank the following corporations, small businesses, schools and individual families for giving of themselves to help our clients. Your support has been overwhelmingly generous and we are grateful to you for making a huge impact on the lives of these families!

Bombardier Inc., CIBC, Cornell Community, Coutura Image Consulting, Faye Stephensen, Flamingo Graphics, Garner Family, Gerrard Square Mall, Helen Ziegler & Associates Inc., Hewitt Associates, IBM Canada, ING Canada, Intelysis Corporation, Jennifer Yates, Jump Café and Bar, Leafs TV & Raptors NBA TV, Mackenzie Financial – Shareholder Processing Team, NUCAP Industries Inc., Ontario Financing Authority, Pilot PMR, Queen’s University Toronto Alumni Branch, Robert Half Canada Inc., Seneca College, Social Service Workers Students, Service Canada, Employment Insurance Call Centre, Seymour Families, Shannon Family, Starbucks Coffee Company Canada, Sterling Tile & Carpet, Sun Life Financial, Susy Fossati, TD Canada Trust, The Bay on Bloor and Victoria College Students