Whether we enjoy the holiday time and its avalanche of food, lights, and gifts or we look at it with apprehension, being reminded of the loss of a loved one, it rarely leaves us indifferent and tends to heighten our feelings. For some women in our community, that time of the year can be especially hard and increase the feeling of isolation.
Throughout the holiday season, our sites will serve as receptables of warmth, community and laughter, providing delicious food, gifts and joyful moments to all the women we serve, and their kids or grandkids.
Last year, we served 550 meals at the Holiday Dinner, gave out 800 gifts for women to open during the Christmas season and welcomed 80 children at their dedicated Christmas Party. With your help, we are preparing to make the magic happen this year again!
Come Spread the Holiday Cheer with Us!
During the holiday season, we create festive and meaningful celebrations for the women and children we serve. There are many ways you can make their festive season much more joyous!
Purchase gifts
Part of making the holidays more joyful is to ensure that everyone gets a little special gift, filled with love. During the celebrations, each woman gets a gift bag including items to pamper herself, stay warm and cozy and have fun. Kids on the other end, will enter a room full of gifts – toys, sports item, craft… all curated by Santa for them to pick.
This incredible effort is made possible only through the generosity of our donors! If you would like to contribute you can either:
Order from our registry
As easy as it gets: chose the gift you’d like to bring under the tree from the registry and it gets delivered directly to us. We will take care of sorting and wrapping your gift.
Organize a donation drive
Gather with your friends, your neighbours or your coworkers to collect gifts: tuques, gloves, hand creams, or makeup for the women and toys for the kids. Please contact us for details at engagement@dewc.ca.
Please note: while we happily accept used items (especially clothing) for regular donations, we really want the holiday gifts to be this little special luxury that stands out from the rest of the year and kindly ask that you only bring new items for this purpose. Check our dedicated page to learn more about the current needs and drop-off instructions of each of our service sites.
Drop off details:
- Where? 161 E Pender St. (access in the alley, on the side of the building)
- When? December 12th at the latest!
- December 7th (Saturday) – 1 pm to 5 pm
- December 10th (Tuesday) – 1 pm to 5 pm
- December 11th (Wednesday) – 1 pm to 5 pm
- December 12th (Thursday) – 1 pm to 5 pm
- Can’t make any of these times? Reach out to us at engagement@dewc.ca to schedule your drop-off
Volunteer
Sign up to volunteer: this time of year is always busy, and we need plenty of helping hands to serve food, sort and wrap gifts, organize donations, and more. You can make a huge difference for the women and the children by volunteering your time! All interested volunteers will be contacted for an orientation meeting on November 26th were you will get a chance to select your preferred shifts. More information to come.
Contact Us:
We love to hear from our donors during this Holiday season! Please email us at engagement@dewc.ca and call us at 604-723-6782 for any questions.