Holiday Helpers
For the third year in a row we became Santa’s elves for a day at Holiday Helpers. It is such a great organization and, as always, it was a wonderful experience for us all.
Holiday helpers has been around since 1996 and was founded by two sisters - April and Sarah Rutka. The goal is to “bring the magic of Christmas to deserving families throughout the Greater Toronto Area”. At our session this year April Rutka gave the introductory talk. The speaker is always passionate and enthusiastic, but this year, it was especially poignant to hear about the genesis of this charity from one of the founders.
How it works: A deserving family creates a wish list of items they need or want for each family member and a sponsor buys gifts for each person on the list. This year, again, Emma - Integral Group's founder - sponsored a large (6 person) family. The family wish list provided includes first name, gender, age, clothing / household / toy requests. This translates into about 15 – 30 gifts per person which are then individually wrapped.
That’s where we came in this year – wrapping elves. So you get a sense of the scope, the event was held in a (now closed) Home Outfitters store – about 29,000 square feet (for anyone that doesn’t know the chain .. this is a bit larger than a smaller Walmart Supercenter ... so … huge!). The facility was packed to capacity with volunteers and gifts.
We split up into 2 groups and proceeded to wrap gifts for 4 families – and we had a blast – albeit an exhausting one! A newcomer to the event looked at the vast array of tables piled with gifts and proclaimed it ‘overwhelming’ – and then just dove in. Our team talked about the generosity of the donors and how we could envision ‘our’ deserving families being thrilled with the thoughtful gifts. Everyone ends up feeling a personal connection with the families whose gifts they were wrapping.
Some of the gifts are just difficult to wrap – pots and pans, boots and a host of other generally awkward stuff: No gift bags and often no boxes. One of our team members lamented that she missed her secret weapon for wrapping – duct tape: Hmmm … maybe an idea for next year? In the end, all of the gifts look home-wrapped and completely personal. There is an unparalleled warm glow that comes from knowing that you have played a part in bringing some real joy to a family that might otherwise be facing a fairly dismal holiday.
Our team reflected on the fact that not everyone is as fortunate as we are, and it is just a great feeling to be giving back at this time of year. And it is enjoyable for us to get together outside of work. It’s an opportunity to see the people we work with in a different light and, while we are a close group generally, this serves to unite us even more.
From all of us at Integral Group … we wish Happy Holidays to all of our loyal readers!
Holiday helpers has been around since 1996 and was founded by two sisters - April and Sarah Rutka. The goal is to “bring the magic of Christmas to deserving families throughout the Greater Toronto Area”. At our session this year April Rutka gave the introductory talk. The speaker is always passionate and enthusiastic, but this year, it was especially poignant to hear about the genesis of this charity from one of the founders.
How it works: A deserving family creates a wish list of items they need or want for each family member and a sponsor buys gifts for each person on the list. This year, again, Emma - Integral Group's founder - sponsored a large (6 person) family. The family wish list provided includes first name, gender, age, clothing / household / toy requests. This translates into about 15 – 30 gifts per person which are then individually wrapped.
That’s where we came in this year – wrapping elves. So you get a sense of the scope, the event was held in a (now closed) Home Outfitters store – about 29,000 square feet (for anyone that doesn’t know the chain .. this is a bit larger than a smaller Walmart Supercenter ... so … huge!). The facility was packed to capacity with volunteers and gifts.
We split up into 2 groups and proceeded to wrap gifts for 4 families – and we had a blast – albeit an exhausting one! A newcomer to the event looked at the vast array of tables piled with gifts and proclaimed it ‘overwhelming’ – and then just dove in. Our team talked about the generosity of the donors and how we could envision ‘our’ deserving families being thrilled with the thoughtful gifts. Everyone ends up feeling a personal connection with the families whose gifts they were wrapping.
Some of the gifts are just difficult to wrap – pots and pans, boots and a host of other generally awkward stuff: No gift bags and often no boxes. One of our team members lamented that she missed her secret weapon for wrapping – duct tape: Hmmm … maybe an idea for next year? In the end, all of the gifts look home-wrapped and completely personal. There is an unparalleled warm glow that comes from knowing that you have played a part in bringing some real joy to a family that might otherwise be facing a fairly dismal holiday.
Our team reflected on the fact that not everyone is as fortunate as we are, and it is just a great feeling to be giving back at this time of year. And it is enjoyable for us to get together outside of work. It’s an opportunity to see the people we work with in a different light and, while we are a close group generally, this serves to unite us even more.
From all of us at Integral Group … we wish Happy Holidays to all of our loyal readers!
