Established in 2017, the SEET (Special Events and Engagement Team) consists of volunteers from our wm+a associate group, office staff and AlphaBee team. SEET’s mission is to organize events and to gather as a wider team, both to celebrate and to build on our teamwork, and to engage and host community events. Our committee is dedicated to collaborating and making special moments possible for our team and community.
If you’d like support to SEET initiatives and give back to our community, we would greatly appreciate donations sent to supportseet@wmanda.com.
Breakfast with Santa Initiative 2024
Breakfast with Santa initiative. We invite our community families to join us for this special event, where Santa will provide gifts for children and youth registered, along with a turkey voucher for their families or caregivers.
This year, our goal is to bring holiday cheer to 450 children, providing them with personalized gifts and turkey vouchers to families supported by Daily Bread Food Bank, Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter, Family Services Toronto, Dream Centre (Hamilton), and many other community organizations.
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
If Santa’s help could brighten your family’s holiday, we encourage you to register today. This year we are happy to be hosting two events at our wm+a & AlphaBee offices:
Etobicoke, ON (130 North Queen St.) – Saturday, December 14th
10:00am – 1:00pm
Registration for this location has been filled!
Hamilton, ON (440 Main St. E) – Sunday, December 15th
10:00am – 12:00pm
Registration for this location has been filled!
Back-to-School Backpack Initiative 2024: A Remarkable Achievement
This year’s Back-to-School Backpack event was a great success, surpassing our initial goal. We aimed to equip 300 children with school-ready backpacks filled with supplies, treats, and a little extra joy. Thanks to the dedication and efforts of our SEET (Special Events and Engagement Team) volunteers and their fundraising activities, we successfully distributed 372 backpacks this year.
We extend our gratitude to everyone involved in making this event possible, including the wm+a and AlphaBee teams who played essential roles in planning, coordinating, and executing fundraising events such as Valentines Candy-Grams, the Backpack Donation Program, Krispy Kreme Doughnut sales, and more. A special thank you goes to our donor for providing beauty and wellness products, which offered additional support to mothers, caregivers, and family members attending the event.
We were happy to once again support organizations like the Daily Bread Food Bank, Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter, Autism Ontario, Family Services Toronto, and others, helping us to broaden our impact within the community. It was rewarding to see the smiles on the faces of children and youth as they chose their favorite backpacks and supplies.
We appreciate the feedback and messages we received from families, expressing their gratitude and encouraging us to continue growing this initiative. Your input motivates us to aim higher, and we are committed to making next year’s event even more impactful. Thank you to everyone who supported us. Together, we are making a difference — one backpack at a time.
Breakfast with Santa 2023
Our 2023 ‘Breakfast with Santa’ event was a huge success! Our aim was to provide gifts from Santa to 400 children, along with turkey vouchers for the families and caregivers supported by Daily Bread Food Bank, Ernestine’s Women Shelter, and various other community organizations. We’re excited to share that we surpassed our goal by gifting toys to 412 children! Each child and their family received delicious pancakes prepared by a team of elves, along with a holiday gift voucher for the caregivers/families.
We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated volunteers who participated to this year’s event. Witnessing the joy on the children’s faces as they visited Santa (aka Dunya, CEO) and interacted with the helpful elves was truly touching. We are immensely grateful for the support of our wm+a and AlphaBee teams and volunteers, without whom this event would not have been possible.
Back-to-School Backpack Initiative 2023
This year’s Back to School Backpack Event was a huge success! Our goal was to prepare 300 children with school-ready backpacks, with supplies and treats, however with the generous contributions of time and effort by our SEET volunteers, with their creative fundraising initiatives, we were pleased to be able to gift 342 backpacks!
Thanks to all team members who supported our event: led by SEET (Special Events and Engagement Team) and supported by wm+a and AlphaBee therapists who helped prepare and co-ordinate fundraising events such as Paint Night, Kernels Popcorn, Krispy Kreme Doughnut sales, and more. Also, a huge thank you to the donations of beauty and wellness products gifted to mothers, caregivers and family members.
We were pleased to again collaborate with the Daily Bread Food Bank and Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter, and reach even more families. Our team shared in the excitement of the children/youth picking their favorite coloured backpack and selecting their new supplies and we greatly appreciated receiving messages from family members sharing with us what the event meant to them, their messages encouraging us to make next year’s event even more impactful.
Breakfast with Santa 2022
For this year’s Breakfast with Santa initiative, our goal was to raise enough funds to provide 300 children in the community with a gift from Santa Claus (our CEO, Dunya). We are excited to announce that we were able to gift toys to over 330 children! Each child’s family also received a take-away breakfast with delicious pancakes made by a team of elves, and a turkey voucher for the caregivers.
SEET raised $4409 through their fundraising initiatives (On-Line Auction, Raffle Baskets, etc.) and donations from our community partners. AlphaBee & wm+a matched all funds for a total of $8818!
A special thank you to the all the helpful volunteers who partook in this year’s event – it was heartwarming to see the excitement on children’s faces and hear from families that this is their first Santa visit ever! It couldn’t be done without our wm+a and AlphaBee teams and volunteers!
Back-to-School Backpack Initiative 2022
This year we aimed to purchase and give away 200 backpacks full of school supplies to children and youth. The campaign was funded by SEET volunteers’ initiatives such as the Donut Fundraiser and Walking Challenge, as well as donations from associates who chose to “give up a cup of coffee” for a day.
We partnered with the Daily Bread Food Bank as well as Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter to reach more families. We gave out a grand total of 232 backpacks filled with school supplies to 110+ families to support their young learners going into the 2022-2023 school year!
It was joyful to watch children selecting their favourite-colored backpack and new school supplies. We are truly touched by all the appreciation and comments we heard that day.
Breakfast with Santa 2021
The SEET Committee hosted the long-awaited return of Breakfast with Santa in 2021! Santa Claus stopped his sleigh at our Etobicoke and Hamilton offices for a special visit! With the funds raised from the Online Auction, Raffle Baskets, and 50|50 Draw, Santa handed out toys to children and youth who attended, as well as turkey vouchers for the families and caregivers to enjoy a nice holiday meal.
We had 89 families register for the event; Santa handed out 162 gifts for children who attended – what a turnout! Each family got a breakfast to go – freshly cooked pancakes, danishes, yogurt, cheese strings, and chocolate milk.
Breakfast with Santa 2019
Breakfast with Santa is an initiative coordinated for a second year by our committed wm+a and AlphaBee SEET volunteers (Social Events & Engagement Team)!
Throughout the year they were busy organizing events and raising funds to create these wonderful opportunities such as Breakfast with Santa, to create special moments for our community families. We invited families supported by wm+a, AlphaBee and our community partners to join us for a pancake breakfast with Santa. With the funds raised Santa was able to provide 92 gifts to the children and donated turkey gift cards to 59 families. This year we were able to host two events at our AlphaBee learning centres, in Etobicoke and Hamilton and we hope to accomplish even more in 2020.
THANK YOU to everyone who supported our initiatives and a special thank you to all that volunteered their time to make this event a great success!
Comedy Night in Support of Breakfast with Santa
Absolute Comedy along with AlphaBee and wm+a SEET volunteers hosted a night of laughter to raise funds for the Breakfast with Santa Initiative!
All ticket proceeds along the silent auction and 50/50 draw are going towards purchasing gifts for children with special needs and providing a turkey voucher for the families.
This event raised $3,680! Shout out to our friends that donated to the silent auction: Total Sport Solutions, GTA Mobile Massage, Sephora, Staples – Etobicoke, E-Zone, OrangeTheory – Fairview Burlington, and Caryl Baker – Sherway Gardens!
Back-to-School Backpack Initiative 2019
Our 2019 goal was to raise enough funds to provide 120 children in the community each with a backpack filled with school supplies. We are excited to announce that we were able to gift 224 backpacks.
SEET Committee raised $2,941 with their fundraising initiatives (Valentine’s Candy Grams, Easter treats, 50/50 draws, etc) and associates and employee donations. Our CEO Dunya matched the funds for a total of $5882.
Breakfast with Santa 2018
The goal was to raise funds with all proceeds going towards purchasing gifts for children and a turkey for families who struggle through the holiday season.
We successfully raised a total of $4000 for our Breakfast with Santa Initiative. We raised $2,236 from donations and the proceeds from comedy night, gift basket raffles and date night. Our CEO donated $1,764.
With the money raised we were able to purchase 114 gifts for children and donate turkey gift cards to 54 families.
Back-to-School Backpack Initiative 2018
The goal was to provide 50 in-need children and youth in the community each with a backpack filled with much needed back to school supplies. Each backpack contained a variety of items including: pens, pencils, crayons, markers, pencil crayons, glue sticks, a ruler, a binder filled with paper, a notebook, a squeeze ball, and a wm+a/AlphaBee t-shirt.
We successfully raised $730 towards the initiative. Our CEO Dunya Marijan-Winterson matched the donations, bringing us to a total of $1460.
In conjunction with the Etobicoke Salvation Army located in the Rexdale area, we distributed 50 backpacks to children that otherwise would not have been prepared to return to school.
In 2017 the SEET Committee raised $2000 in the Autism Speaks Walk – Burlington as well as participated in the CTV Mountain Toy Drive donating over 85 unwrapped gifts.
wm+a and AlphaBee were proud to take part of the 2017 CTV Toy Mountain Drive for the Salvation Army. We were grateful to have had the opportunity to present our donated toys and be recognized for our contribution live on CTV. Please click here (Toy Mountain Donation wm+a & AlphaBee) to watch our news clip.