Volunteer
LOFT welcomes teams of volunteers and offers a variety of ways to get involved.
Click on the links below for some suggested ways to help.
If you are a part of a group that would be interested in supporting LOFT Clients by painting some rooms, providing a meal or adopting a program, contact the Development office at 416-979-1994, ext. 222.
Work Groups
Teams of volunteers provide invaluable services. They save LOFT money and help provide the clients with clean, bright surroundings to help them feel better about themselves, and more hopeful about their lives.
For Example:
- A team from the Leveraged Finance group from CIBC spent half a day painting halls and stairways
- A team from Deloitte & Touche painted kitchens
- A group of accountants from Grant Thornton put down their calculators and picked up rakes one rainy day to clean the grounds at a LOFT apartment building
- Students of Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School filled more than 40 garbage bags with leaves and clippings
- Volunteers from St. Timothy’s Anglican Church cooked dinner for clients once a month
“If we have to hire professional painters for example, it can cost hundreds of dollars. So a group of willing volunteers are a real bonus. And we certainly have lots of painting for them to do.” says Property Services Manager Dan Van Willegen.
Says James Logan, Senior Director and Team Leader at CIBC “it’s a significant day for our team. It gives us a chance to get out of the office and do something different together, but it also makes an important contribution to the community.”
What could your group do?
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Cook a Meal
Once a month volunteers from a downtown church prepare a meal for residence of St. George House. Then they and their families deliver the meal and sit down with residence to enjoy it. The clients really enjoy the social interaction and atmosphere of a big family dinner once a month. back to the top of the page
Provide a Celebration
Each year Adath Israel Congregation pick a Sunday in May as their “Mitzvah Day”. The members of Adath Israel come together and devote the day to deeds of loving kindness. Because the day is usually close to Mother’s Day, one of their activities is to prepare gift bags and deliver them to some of the city’s women’s shelters and to the women in some of LOFT’s seniors programs. A Mitzvah, indeed!
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Adopt a Program
St. Timothy’s Anglican Church has been friend and supporter to LOFT’s St. George House for more than twenty years. In addition to making an annual financial contribution and serving a monthly meal, volunteers make regular deliveries of home-baked cookies and send birthday cards to the residents.
At Christmas time staff provides them with all the residents’ wish lists and St. Tim’s parishioners sign up to shop for one resident each. Outreach Chair Linda Gilpin says it’s never a problem getting enough volunteers for the Christmas list. There are only twenty-six residents and they get “snapped up in a minute”.
St. George resident Brian March describes the St. Tim’s volunteers. “They are very nice people, well established and great company”. Brian noted that the members of St. Timothy’s consistently make folks feel at home, especially on their monthly visits when they bring their families, and join the residents in enjoying the meal they have provided.
Why do they do it? Because over the years the relationship with St. George House has become “personal”. The volunteers may not know the residents personally, but they know the program and feel a strong connection.
The relationship is not all one-way, either. When St. George House has a particular need, they know they can turn to St. Tim’s for help. Sometimes the call goes out for household items like linens and towels, or coffee mugs. St. Timothy’s always responds if they can. They help with larger needs as well. Three years ago they paid for a new dishwasher, and last year, when the dining room air conditioning unit finally quit, they replace that as well.
Linda Gilpin explains. “We see everything that St. Tim’s does with St. George House as a manifestation of the churches vision of open arms, open hearts, open minds.”
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Do What You Can
Scouts visit John Gibson House
The Beavers and Cubs from the 75th Old Mill Scout Troupe visited the seniors at John Gibson house. They filled shoeboxes with living essentials, wrapped them up, and gave them to seniors at the program.
Meet the Cookie Grandma!
For five years, Emanuela Tattelis has been baking Christmas cookies for LOFT seniors. This year she was joined by her granddaughters, 7 year old Zoe Vieira and her 4-year-old sister Eva. Together they baked 4,000 cookies; enough for every one of LOFT’s 637 seniors to receive a bag.
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