Send’em Off Smiling Campaign – In Support of Waterloo Region
Last year we let you know about an opportunity to help provide children in our community with the items they need to kick off the school year. It is the Send'em Off Smiling initiative. Our team will be participating again this year and we wanted to let you know how you could be involved. Let's bless some kids this fall as they head back to the classroom.
The details are below. Now more than ever students are overwhelmed with the unknowns around the start of the school year. We can bring some joy to a child by helping provide much needed things like a backpack and warm sweater.
You can sponsor a child or donate. Read on if this interests you. If you decide to sponsor a child, you will get the information in July and need to have the backpack ready to go by August 4th.
Here's a little bit about the organization and how it works.
Their objective is to match children in greatest need with the resources of our caring community. Local corporations and individuals support Send’em Off Smiling with financial donations or by offering to sponsor a child, a family, or a specified number of children.
They rely on teachers to help identify the children in need of help in each school. Parents have an opportunity to participate by filling in a “Child Form” with the necessary information about their child’s size and style preferences. These forms are sent back to Send’em Off Smiling. They carefully guard the identity of all participating families.
If you decide to sponsor a child you will be provided with the Child Form for your student(s), any identifying information is removed, so that you can shop for the necessary items and return the filled backpack(s) to Send ‘em Off Smiling before a designated date. Volunteers check and then deliver the completed backpacks to the children. This is the busiest and most gratifying stage in our SOS season!
OUR CHILDREN
Most programs which provide clothing or toys for children make use of child “categories” rather than actual children. Send’em Off Smiling is a little different. Although the privacy and anonymity of our SOS children are carefully protected, our sponsors and shoppers are in fact shopping for an actual child who will be looking forward to his or her personalized package with great excitement!
With so many children living in need here in Waterloo Region, it can be hard to decide which children need our help most. That’s why we rely on teachers to help identify the children who would benefit most from the program. These teachers witness the impact of child poverty on learning readiness. Once teachers identify the children then packages are sent to the parents who decide whether they would like their child to participate.
THE BACKPACK INCLUDES:
One pair, good quality jeans
A warm, long-sleeved hoodie (preferably with a zipper)
A T-shirt
Good quality running shoes
Package of socks (5-9 pairs)
Package of underwear
Age-appropriate backpack
Our organization then adds in school supplies, a lunch bag, water bottle and some other goodies to make sure these children have everything they need for a year of success.
2022 Time Line
May/June 2022 – Forms returned from schools and distributed to sponsors
July 2022 – Shopping and bag packing
August 4th 2022 – Completed bag return date
Late August/September 2022 – Delivery of backpacks If you are interested in sponsoring a child(ren) this year, please contact sendemoffsponsor@gmail.com with;
- Your name
- Mailing address
- E-mail
- Whether you prefer an age or specific gender
- How many children you would like to sponsor
If you choose to participate Send'em Off will email you a copy of the child form(s) and follow it up with a mailed package. This will give you as much time as possible to start shopping for the items for your child.
For more information, please check out their website http://sendemoff.ca/ If you need more information email sendemoffsponsor@gmail.com and one of the volunteers will get back to you.
Thank you for considering supporting this great cause.
Your Advise First Team