Price Smart at North Road is giving Christmas to two families from Burnaby Mountain Secondary School.
The employees are sponsoring the two families with their own pocket money, collecting hundreds of dollars worth of clothing, toiletries and gift cards to local businesses so the parents can pick up what the children like, according to Carolyn Orazietti, executive director for the Burnaby North Road Business improvement Association.
"Through their generosity, these good community kids will be able to have what the other kids have - a Christmas - and their parents can breathe a sigh of relief that there will be a Christmas for their children after all," she wrote to the NOW, adding the association wants to acknowledge the generosity of Price Smart at North Gate Village.
The local store's generosity carries on throughout the year, she pointed out.
"All through the year they reach out to local schools by participating in fundraising initiatives, with supplies for pancake breakfasts; cash donations to playground funds; pumpkins for Halloween; gingerbread houses for Christmas; and food for breakfast programs," Orazietti wrote.
STUDENTS HELP THOSE IN NEED
Students at the B.C. Institute of Technology gave back to the community in a big way at the beginning of December.
The school's Gift of Choice program helped 25 families celebrate Christmas this year, with families ranging in size from single-parent to twoparent households with two or three children, according to the student association's student services manager.
"It's hard enough for students to provide for their families throughout the year, let alone during the Christmas season," Catherine Wilkinson said in an email. "The Gift of Choice program was created eight years ago when it became clear that there was an unmet need for students balancing education and family."
The students collected more than $6,000 worth of gifts and $2,000 more for the school's emergency food fund this year.
The fund is a yearround program that provides food for students experiencing financial difficulty.
"It's inspiring to see the BCIT community come together in support of this program. Struggling families have been overwhelmed by donors' generosity, some even moved to tears in response to such kindness," Wilkinson said. "I feel privileged to have been a part of this program and to have witnessed first-hand the impact such kindness can have on students' lives."
EA REACHES OUT AT CHRISTMAS
One of Burnaby's largest companies, Electronic Arts, has also helped local families this season.
The company sponsored 35 families this year through the YWCA's Presence of Peace program, according to Chantelle Krish, public relations manager for YWCA Metro Vancouver.
Presence of Peace is a holiday hamper program in which donors are matched with low-income, single mother-led families. The donors then shop for food and gifts and deliver the hamper to the family's home close to Christmas, according to Krish.
EA is one of the program's strongest corporate donors, she said, and has sponsored 380 families throughout the past decade.
BUSINESSES UP FOR AWARDS
Urban Foliage is in the running for a Best Concept award once again in the ninth annual Small Business B.C. Successful You Awards.
The company, which provides green building services, nominated itself and is up as a nominee in the category for the second year in a row.
Williams and White, a family-owned manufacturing company in Burnaby, is up for Best Company.
The third-generation company had its biggest year in 2010/11 and has large expansion plans for the future, according to Jenny Duncan, media relations manager for the Laura Balance Media Group Inc., which is handling publicity for the event.
The top five finalists in each category will be announced on Jan. 30, according to the press release from Small Business B.C.
The Successful You Awards ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 28 at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver.
Do you have an item for Movers & Shakers? Send Burnaby business ideas to Janaya, jfuller-evans@burn abynow.com. You can also follow her on Twitter, @janayafe.
