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.
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.
A special THANK YOU to all that volunteered their time and/or donated these to initiatives.
If you’d like to donate to SEET initiatives and give back to our community, we would greatly appreciate donations sent to supportseet@wmanda.com.