Small but Significant

To celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday, RBC was reaching out to youth and giving the Make150Count grant to young Canadians to try to make a difference in the lives of other Canadians. I was honored to receive this grant from my Junior Achievement Advisor and was told to think out of the box and be creative with the funds.

The principal issue I wanted to target was homelessness in Toronto, since I would always see people on the streets in downtown and I wanted to help make a difference in their lives.

I started to reach out to my friends to brainstorm ideas on what I can accomplish with the grant. We thought of ideas ranging from going out for coffee with a few homeless people and just spending time to chat with them, to creating care packages for youth that could be themed to help spark interest in careers for the youth.

I loved the idea to help out homeless youth and started contacting a few homeless shelters for youth in Toronto.

The Covenant House was one of the shelters that got back to me and I decided to help them out because they were located in downtown, near Yonge and Dundas. They told me which items are most needed for care packages and based on that I created a list of items to include in the care packages. Once I had finalized the items I wanted to include in these care packages I headed out to go and buy them. Each care package contained; a water bottle, a hat, hand sanitizer, lotion, a comb, lip balm, a couple pairs of socks, a few snacks, and a t shirt.

As I went out to go buy the items for the care packages I began to ask myself “will they (the homeless youth) like this?”, and this made me realize that many homeless individuals don’t have much choice in the items that they receive. These items are all just essential to live and many of us just take them for granted, however I’ve learned that in fact homeless people are so grateful to receive some of these items that we would consider basic. This experience has taught me to cherish these necessities that we have in our lives and appreciate my life even more.

Eventually I headed down to the Covenant House in Toronto with a few friends to deliver the care packages. From our walk to the Covenant House from Union Station I’m sure we saw over 10 homeless people just lying on the streets. As we approached the shelter, my friends and I realized that it’s so close to Yonge Dundas square, yet this was the first time any of us had even heard of a place like this so close to the heart of downtown.

Once we entered the building we were greeted by their friendly staff and were directed to a table to simply place the care packages on. While we were placing all the care packages on the table, a simple passerby, who was just there to visit someone, was shocked to see what a bunch of high school students were doing. In entirety the experience was extremely unique and I’m happy I was able to make a difference in the lives of other young people. Even though I didn’t get to meet many of the homeless youth in the shelter, the simple opportunity to be able to donate to the Covalent House truly made my entire summer special. With only 4 months left in Canada’s 150th Anniversary year I challenge you to try and make a difference in someone’s life. Even something small, like buying a coffee for the person in the drive thru line behind you, or simply anything that can create positive impact on our world.

Special thanks to everyone who made this experience possible for me; my Junior Achievement advisor who gave me the grant, RBC, all my friends who helped out, and of course the Covenant house.