Who Gives.....East Gwillimbury??? " Support local"

Who Gives ……………East Gwillimbury?

    This has been an incredible difficult time for so many families and business I couldn’t possible just write about one cause. There are so many people and families making sacrifices to benefit others.  

 The first community initiative that came to mind as I was thinking of all the charities and programs in East Gwillimbury is the Food Pantry. Currently we have residence in our community who have lost or reduced hours at their jobs and our struggling to feed their families. If you would like to help www.mauc.ca is Mount Albert Food pantry and www.egpl.ca has information on the Holland landing Food Pantry and how you can get involved.  

It’s in you too give! Is the slogan that you hear on the radio most often when promoting Canada blood bank.  When citizens were told to stay home as much as possible the blood banks were experiencing shortages in doners, but the need was still great. The next donation event in East Gwillimbury is Saturday September 12 at the East Gwillimbury Sport Complex. If you would like to make an appointment check out their web site  I also discovered that they are involved with a national research to study for Covid virus and are looking for plasma donations. I hear people say they wish they could do more to help during this world crisis. This may be the perfect opportunity to do your part and potentially save the world from this crisis for more information check out the web site  www.blood.ca

East Gwillimbury Girl Guide raise money for their programs though their cookie campaigns I’m sure all of us have enjoyed these delicious treats. With Covid restrictions and the guides were not being able to sell at usual locations Patricia from Mount Albert stepped it up with a truly WIN-WIN idea. Community members can purchase cookies from her and choose to enjoy for themselves or she has been donating them to the police station, Southlake ER, mammogram department as well as other essential workers that sometimes get forgotten about like Green for life waste management, environment services at York Region and Postal workers. What an amazing way to give a little treat to say thank you to the hard-working men and women who kept East Gwillimbury functioning during the shutdown.  Way to go Patricia!! 10 cases of cookies have been donated from Patricia efforts  If you would like some cookies for this double great cause they are $5.00   email hwy35ster@gmail.com to place your order.

Our local Chamber of Commers did many things to support small business but most mentionable is a program from FanSaves.  They hosted a FREE program that allowed business to sell gift cards online during the closure. They also had an option to purchase a card and have it donated to a hospital employee. Most people will say that small business have been hit the hardest being forced to close with little or no income but still expenses. No one wants to see ghost towns and it will take months or even years for most business to recover. So what can you do??  As our premier has said over and over shop local buy made in Ontario or made in Canada. Purchase from a East Gwillimbury small business when you can instead of a shipping a purchase from other areas. Remember in East Gwillimbury our business employ over 7400 people!! Now more than ever is so important to support local whenever possible.       

  They are also an essential part of our communities think about the busines that sponsored your local hockey team or donated a gift card to a fundraiser

Check out all the amazing local business  this site  is a great resource.  East Gwillimbury Business listing 

There are a number of ways you can support your local favourite store without spending any  money such as: Follow them on social media, write a Google or Facebook review, refer a friend if you love the products or services that the business has to offer chances our your neighbour or friend will too!

Two East Gwillimbury small business that really stood out to me during the closure are Chefies Eatery and Neighbourhood Market. Chefies owner Maher Sayed told me that they had partnered with blue door shelter to provide affordable meals to their clients over 11,00 meals were delivered. As well they donated over 200 meals to seniors’ homes and community care facilities.  Neighbourhood market was providing food to the Food Pantry and delivering food to seniors.

There were so many give back stories of neighbours dropping off food for a quarantine family or people making and donating mask but ultimately each and every one of us gave back to our community recently.

 Because we are following the guidelines, we were are experiencing very low numbers and we greatly reduced the negative impact of this pandemic.  If you stayed home, stayed distance and stayed safe you could have saved a life of a loved one or neighbour!

I would like to take this opportunity to thanks our essential workers who kept our community functioning, food in our pantries and kept us safe! I think about the dedicated nurses and medical professionals who showed up to work every day they are the heroes in this crisis. My two closest friends are nurses doing covid swobs daily, I could not be prouder of the work that they do.

Do you have an essential worker who lives in East Gwillimbury and  you would like them to be thanked and recognized for there hard work in the next issue of Who Gives….. East Gwillimbury? 

Send the who gives stories coming…….  you can find me on facebook SHARON BATES or email me at who.gives.eg@gmail.com

Keep up the great work with distancing and mask

Stay safe and healthy

SHARON