YEG Holiday Helpers

Public post: help us help others!
Please comment with the Christmas services and supports you know about in Edmonton and surrounding areas. We are looking to create a post that includes all information for individuals and families who may need the extra help over the 2022 Holidays.

We will be reposting all information on a pinned post with the details on each support!

Hello to all our friends, supporters and families of YEG Holiday Helpers.

This is Red Cassidy, cofounder of this community project.

I’m really sorry, but once again we are cancelling a main event. I was hoping to find a way to keep our Easter Event going, even on a small scale, but my personal circumstances are needing my full attention right now.

My 16 year old son unexpectedly passed away on March 8th, and things are very difficult. I can’t even begin to explain how hard the last few months have been let alone the past 2 weeks, and our YEG Holiday Helper projects have continued to weigh heavily on my heart, because I would have loved to make it happen still…my kids are a huge reason why we do these projects, and I would have loved to make it happen this year in memory of my son Logan. But it’s not something I’m ready to put my time into when my family needs a lot of support now as well.

These projects will happen again, but until then, I’d like to encourage families to reach out for help from friends and family and community supports for help over the holidays.

Over the next week I will post affordable options for families who can afford to spend $20-$50 for Easter dinner and baskets. The post will include how to purchase Easter dinner items for $25 for a family of 4-6 and how to put together Easter baskets and egg hunts for your kids at $10/child.

Thank you for understanding, thank you for your support, and Happy Easter

While our biggest portion of YEG Holiday Helpers was cancelled this year, we do want to share about what our project has still been able to do worh donations that have come in, as well the personal family contributions by the organizers to other projects not only in Edmonton but as far as New York City!

This Christmas has been pretty tough on some of the volunteers and organizers because of lack of donations, as well as personal circumstances and family emergencies. It has been a hard December, because I know all of us over here wish that we could be doing more. So today we are counting blessings, and we want to share with our community what we are still doing!

We’ve been able to provide boxes and boxes of donations to another organization here in Edmonton that provides gifts to kids and their families that are spending the holidays in the hospital, specifically the Stollery. We have also been able to connect with a number of organizations including some group homes, and shelters that are available for high-risk youth in the city. On Christmas day, we will have a volunteer going out and delivering essentials, snacks, and some gifts to some of our cities most vulnerable kids… I’m not sure if you are aware, but the rate of homeless youth has gone up nearly 60% since Covid first began. These kids come from A background of crisis, trauma, and children Services intervention… These kids need help, and these kids need to be able to celebrate Christmas as well, so we are going to do our part and making sure that even a small amount of support can make the biggest impact for them.

In addition to this, we are making ourselves available for families in crisis on Christmas day. We will have some small hampers that will last a few days for families that are experiencing unimaginable crisis… as well as some group homes in the city who may receive intakes over the holidays that are not expected. 

Lastly, one of our founders is currently in New York City, and has been able to visit a local school and offer supports to some of their families who are really struggling. The school is in one of the districts in the United States of America that has the highest number of poverty levels in the country! We have put together donations in partnership with YEG Holiday Helpers to provide kids and their families breakfast over the holidays, snacks, as well as stocking stuffers and a gift for some of the kids. We are so thankful for the support we have received back in Edmonton, and while our focus is always going to be supporting families and children in our city, it’s really nice to be able to bring that support to another area that we call home.

As Christmas quickly approaches, We are receiving messages from families wondering if we are taking any more applications… And the simple answer is no. This Christmas we really did need to cancel the biggest portion of our supports. However, we want to share with you about all these other things that we are still working on, because it’s important for us that while we aren’t able to do what we have typically done, we are still doing our best to reach families, kids, youth, and communities that desperately needs supports.

We have said it over and over again, that time is our most valuable asset. So I would like to encourage all of the families part of this community, to make that effort over this holiday season to spread some Christmas joy by simply taking the time to bless someone around you. Money is not required to make an impact in someone else’s life… Shovelling sidewalks, having your kids make a homemade Christmas card for a neighbor, baking some cookies and sharing them with a senior in your area, or passing on some good used toys to another parent who might not be able to afford much for Christmas… All of these things make a bigger impact than what you might think. And the bonus… While we might all be feeling the pinch of finances over the holidays, You will find that the more you are able to do for someone else even without money, the richer your spirit will feel after knowing you were part of making someone’s holiday more joyful.

 if you have a suggestion, or idea on what other families can do to bless someone else over the holidays, please post in the comments. We would love to see our community come together with tons of ideas on how we can make an impact with other families even if we could use the supports ourselves. Again, we are so thankful to be part of your lives, and we look forward to being able to help Support families need in 2022.

Sponsors:
Just wanted to make a post, and let everyone know that while our big Christmas event has been canceled, we are still accepting donations which will be utilized to help support some other local projects that are struggling, as well as putting together some emergency hampers for families who may end up going through crisis over the holidays, as well as youth stocking stuffers and essential items that will be passed on to a couple group homes and crisis intervention agencies that work with homeless youth and vulnerable families. If you are still looking for a place to support, please get in touch, as we are more than happy to pass on any and all donations over what we will be using ourselves, or provide you with information on other groups that are Also extremely short on sponsors and donations this year.



Volunteers (with trucks) needed!
Due to our Christmas 2021 project being cancelled, we are wanting to move our current easter/Christmas donations and project supplies from west end to a storage unit on the southside of Edmonton. We are in huge need of 2-3 pick up trucks to help us pick up the items and bring to the storage facility. Date to be determined. Please comment or message if you may be able to assist. Thank you!

Announcement:

Behind this project is a small group of VERY hard working volunteers and a huge amount of community support. Sadly, due to one of our organizers having a serious family emergency, our Christmas campaign for 2021 needs to be cancelled. A significant amount of the funding for this project comes directly from the organizers personal finances. And with community donations being very low on top of personal crisis’, this really is the best option at this time. No monetary donations have been received up to the time of this post, and any other donations already received will be returned or passed on to another group that offers Christmas supports.

This has been a very difficult decision because this project is looked forward to for not only our organizers, but volunteers, supporters, and the hundreds of families (and THOUSANDS of kids) that receive our “Christmas magic” supports during the holidays.

We kindly ask that you try understanding the significance of what must be going on for this decision to be made, and we hope this allows families time to plan other supports before the Holidays.

In the upcoming weeks we will be posting ideas, budgeting suggestions, and resources for families. We want to do our best to make sure we can connect all of you to other resources the best we can.

And…if you win the lottery and want to cover the entire YEG Holiday Helper Christmas project budget then get in touch with us! Miracles do happen ❤️

If you are in a position to sponsor a family this Christmas please message us and we can direct you to another group that is in desperate need of help still. Sadly, YEG Holiday Helpers is just one of many groups that are struggling to find donations and sponsors this year 💔

Please help us by SHARING this post and inviting your friends and family to join our page as we work hard on reaching our fundraising goal for Christmas 2021. TOGETHER we can make a difference ❤️

https://gofund.me/0734c259

YEG Holiday Helpers Christmas 2021, organized by Sherry Cassidy We are in huge need of donations for our YEG Holiday Helpers Christmas 2021 campaig… Sherry Cassidy needs your support for YEG Holiday Helpers Christmas 2021

Friends! We are in huge need of donations for our YEG Holiday Helpers Christmas 2021 campaign. Because of my own personal things going on, I thought we may have to cancel this project, but we (our entire YEGHH family) are determined to make it happen and are now in full swing for donations.

We will be supporting low income families, homeless and high risk youth thru Children Services, group homes, and other community projects who work directly with families in need. ALL their funding is low, so without YEG Holiday Helpers, these kids, youth and families may not be able to provide much needed Christmas magic ❤️

If you are able to host a donation bin at your place of employment or business (for staff or customers) please connect with me asap! And, if you would like to make a monetary donation, please reach out! We anticipate this project to cost approximately $15,000 and we KNOW we can reach this goal TOGETHER.

This will be our last project that is run without charitable or non profit status. So please note that we are unable to provide tax receipts but ALL of our funding and project information is available after each event with full transparency on every purchase and every donation received. Our founders and members are 100% volunteer based…every penny is used toward our project.

Attached is our Sponsor Newsletter. Please join our official page YEG Holiday Helpers and donate, volunteer, etc!

We are also looking for classrooms across Edmonton to help us fill 700+ Christmas Cards out! There’s so much opportunity for everyone to help! Let’s get connected!

It's that time of year again, help us provide a Christmas to as many families possible

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

If you would like to be part of helping us provide families with supports this Christmas, please message us! We are looking to confirm our volunteer team asap! Families, students and businesses are all welcome to join!

Please message me directly To get more information! You can add me and message me on my personal account: Red Cassidy

https://www.santasanonymous.ca is accepting application right now for Christmas 2021 🥰

While we do our best here at YEG Holiday Helpers, we don’t know how our Christmas 2021 event will look because of some personal things going on in the lives of our organizers and main volunteers. We are a small group that started these BIG projects because we wanted to make a difference during the holidays for our community….but that doesn’t mean the people behind these projects aren’t struggling too.

Red Cassidy has been working on the charitable status application for YEG Holiday Helpers, but we currently don’t have that status *yet*…when we do, it opens up so many doors for donations and funding so we can continue doing the projects. But the past 2-6 years of these small to BIG projects has significantly come from personal and community donations, which we are so thankful for.

We would like to encourage families to apply for other community programs before their application deadlines come up. That way we can focus a bit more on providing supports to families who may not have qualified, or who find themselves in emergency or financial crisis closer to Christmas. We also really want to continue providing supports to group homes, high risk youth, and other programs who work with families who are struggling.

So please help us by applying to these other programs so we can stretch our Christmas 2021 project even farther 🥰

Our stocking stuffers are budgeted at approx $7-10/child
Our breakfast hampers are valued at approx $15/hamper

Another excellent way for families to budget for Christmas is to go but DollarTree gift cards NOW and hold onto them until December so you already have those funds for the “extras” this holiday season 🥰 $20 can go a long way!

I look forward to announcing our Christmas 2021 project soon!

630 CHED Santas Anonymous A simple wish to see every child receive a new toy at Christmas.

Today I received an amazing gift from Beulah Alliance Church because someone nominated us and we are officially “Kindness Week Award Recipients” ❤️

I would LOVE to share this “skip the dishes” gift certificate with our volunteers, so...it’s getting tucked away until our next project so we can share some food together while preparing goodies for all of our YEG families ❤️

What an incredible Easter event we had! Huge thank you to our volunteers, supporters and families for helping us make yet another YEG Holiday Helper project a huge success!

I really wanted to share a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes. Not only is it important that we are helping support families in need throughout the holidays, but it’s really important to share about the amazing contributions that people are making to be part of these projects.

These 3 lovely ladies are the Uchman family, and since these big projects started Easter of 2020, these ladies have been a driving force behind each project. They’ve put together thousands of plastic eggs filled with chocolates, they have folded endless amounts of pamphlets, set up hundreds of food hampers, put together thousands of stockings, spent many hours organizing, planning, and putting together holiday treats for families across Edmonton. Over the past 365 days and 3 big projects, these ladies have not just supported YEG Holiday Helpers, but they ARE YEG Holiday Helpers. The reality is, if you are a family who is receive support from us, you are receiving something that has been put together by these ladies. Covid has been difficult, for everyone, but this  Family continue to show up and prioritize giving back to their community… And I would just absolutely love for you to help me thank them!

We have had some other amazing contributions during our Easter 2021 project in huge thanks because of some other incredible volunteers who have continued to step up and support these projects. Lisa and her co-workers at Walsh’s No Frills, Nicole, Nikki , and a HUGE thank you to Bullying Enns and their amazing members for their support not just with helping us out together baskets; for but helping us deliver them! And a special thank you to Catherine ....without her business sponsoring us, we wouldn’t be able to stream line our applications so easily....she is the brains behind our amazing applications!

For our Easter Project, TOGETHER, we were able to help:
256 families and 842+ children
5 groups homes / 63 youth
2 community social workers and 14 of their families/30 kids
And...
that’s NOT counting approx another 60 family hampers and 200+ kids that were sent out in the days AFTER Our project was done because we continued having a budget to help support more families!! Wow!!!

Our colouring contest winners will be announced soon, so keep watching our feed!

And...thank you ❤️ I feel so blessed to be part of these projects. I am greatful for the support and encouragement, and I appreciate you all joining me to say THANK you not only to The Uchman family but to all our incredible volunteers and organizers. ❤️

Sincerely & with much love,

Red Cassidy



Official VOLUNTEER appreciation post! Please feel free to share your “thank you’s” and photos in the comments below so our amazing volunteers can enjoy!

Update: volunteers have picked them all up!!! Wahoooooo!!!!!

I have 10 hampers that need to be delivered tonight and a last minute volunteer cancellation. Anyone available to do these deliveries or even some of them? Southside pick up.

We have ZERO Easter baskets left. Huge thank you to all our sponsors and volunteers!! Our Easter event has been a huge success!!!

If you haven’t received an approval yet....keep a close eye on your email tonight before 9pm as we are APPROVING another 125 kids thanks to some generous donations that came in today!!

Deliveries begin today! If you have received your approval please have your phone with you between 4-9pm today and tomorrow as our volunteers will call when they are on their way!

Easter is SOOO close, and behind the scenes we already have HUNDREDS of Easter Baskets assembled, labelled, and safely packed up ready for families who could use the extra supports. Bullying Enns has provided us a MASSIVE amount of help this Easter towards our goal and we are so excited to have teamed up with them for help with our deliveries! Thank you to ALL our sponsors and supporters...we are TRULY appreciative ! Here is a great video from Easter 2020 that i wanted to share with everyone.

IMPORTANT INFO:

**Applications for Easter supports will be opened up sometime next week. PLEASE watch our page for more info

**We are still collecting donations for our Easter Project, and would appreciate any and ALL supports from our YEG Holiday Helper Community

**Volunteer Info for our Delivery Weekend will be posted in the next 24 hours!

Give Back Attack - YEG Easter 2020 Sherry and her team help hundreds of low-income families in Edmonton celebrate Easter. The Can Man Dan Foundation was there to help out and share her story.

We need monetary donations so we can get our Easter Baskets started ❤️ etransfers can be made to [email protected] or directly to one of our admins (each tagged in the comments below).

We have volunteers ready to put together easter baskets and bags, but we still need sponsors. Can you help?

If you can help, please message us 🙂. Our biggest needs right now are baskets, chocolate bunnies, and Easter crafts.

Easter Sponsors NEEDED! How many kids can YOU sponsor?! $5/child provides an Easter bag filled with goodies, crafts, community supports info and Easter bunny chocolates for low income families in YEG. We are looking for sponsors for 2000+ kids this year! Etransfers can be made to [email protected] or by messaging us on social media.

We would LOVE for you to help us by organizing a donation drive with your friends, family or coworkers. We CAN reach our goal, together.

Sherry is already getting busy with our Easter project!! Please pay attention to our page for how to sign up, volunteer, or donate

Going LIVE with Red today for an Easter project Announcement ❤️ if you are thinking about getting involved with our projects as an individual, family, or business....then this is something we really want you to watch! Find out where we need YOUR help in providing supports to families over Easter Weekend and just how easy it is to make an impact in your community by being part of our YEG Holiday Helper Community.

Please LIKE and SHARE our posts/page so we can reach more families in need AND reach more people who want to get involved. ❤️

Our EASTER project is getting closer and we are now collecting monetary donations and Easter basket goodies!

We will be providing families with an Easter food hamper and Easter baskets for the kids in the home. Each basket will be packed with treats and toys, and parents will receive chocolate to help the Easter bunny hide ❤️

YEG Holiday Helper wish list:
Monetary donations to use towards bulk purchases of items.
Easter baskets/buckets
Chocolate Easter bunnies
Spring toys; bubbles, sidewalk chalk, skipping ropes, etc
Easter themed crafts
Individually wrapped Easter candy
Plastic eggs
Knitted items for 0-16 year old

We are currently still discussing how our Easter hampers will be distributed this year. But, we will also be looking for sponsors to help us provide every family with an Easter food hamper (either dinner or breakfast)

*****applications will not be accepted until after our official announcement so please do not message to inquire on how to apply******

Today I picked up a car full of donations from another amazing organization in Sherwood Park. We are excited to add these incredible gifts to our Birthday Program so that families can receive the extra supports ❤️
Our Easter project is already in the planning stages, so keep an eye out for our official post on how we will need your help!

🎁🎁If you're expecting a hamper delivery this weekend. Be sure to keep your phone on you and

BE HOME BETWEEN 1130am-5pm Sat and Sun.

If you are not home, the driver will NOT leave it on your doorstep unless you have communicated it to the driver....you can put a note on your door for the driver ...addressed to YEG HOLIDAY HELPERS.

PLEASE DO NOT MESSAGE us at this point about not being available to receive during those times or make any changes, we will not be able to accomodate any changes at this point.

Merry Christmas all!