SAIF (STOP ABUSE IN FAMILIES)

the LOVESGIVING pizza

Sept 22 - Oct 7 2017

Since opening our St Albert store in April 2017 we have been learning more and more about the St Albert community and the amazing organizations that operate just a couple of minutes from our pizza shop.

I reached out to a regular customer of ours who lives in St Albert and works downtown, she and her family are very involved in the community and have been a great resource for me. She put me in touch with SAIF (Stop Abuse in Families) located right in St Albert. This is an organization that has been helping those experiencing domestic abuse since 1989 in the capital region.

We came up with a fully loaded comfort food pizza to be part of this LOVEPIZZA Gives Initiative - The Lovesgiving pizza. Topped with mashed potatoes, stuffing, pulled turkey, gravy, cranberry chutney and brie cheese drizzle - all made in house. We donated $1 from each Lovesgiving pizza we sold directly to programs at SAIF including individual counselling, group support programs, youth counselling and educational programming in our schools.

We believe every man, woman and child should have a safe place to call home. But the reality is this isn’t the case for many. Our hope is we can make a difference in the life of at least one person or family with this fundraiser. This topic is a difficult one to think about and talk about, but it's SO important because it's happening all around us, quietly. It is a topic that has always been discussed in my family because of the work that my uncle and my aunt have spent their lives doing.

My uncle, Ron Sluser, was one of the original founding men of the White Ribbon Campaign alongside Michael Kaufman and the late Jack Layton in the early 90s, They started what is now an international movementthat encourages men and boys to pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. It is a movement that promotes gender equality, healthy relationships and a new vision of masculinity. .He and his partner, my aunt Jan, have spent their lives working for not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions such as the YWCA and George Brown College. It is work that I have so much respect for and I am still in awe weight this profession carries on those in it (so much so that I did a project on my aunt Jan in junior high on the topic of “write about someone you admire”, true story, it’s probably in a box in my parent’s basement).

I was that little girl who asked them questions about what they did for work and why we were going to a certain “parade” or why I was wearing a t-shirt with a white ribbon on it. And they explained it, all of it. They have inspired me to help those who need someone to listen, who need a voice and who need a fresh start. Never underestimate YOUR INFLUENCE, especially if you are in a position of influence with a young mind and heart. You never who is watching you, who is listening and who you might inspire.

We ended up making 587 LOVESGIVING pizzas during the 16 days that we ran this campaign! We like to round up around here (sometimes) so we donated $1000 to the programs of SAIF. That money will go directly to individual or group support sessions to those experiencing domestic abuse

TERRA CENTRE - SECOND ANNUAL DIAPER DRIVE

June 9-18 2017

diaper drive (in both downtown and St Albert shops)

For each LOVEPIZZA Gives initiative that we do, we make sure we spend some time in and around the organization to really understand what they really do. I had the honour of touring Terra Centre, specifically their Braemar School facility in the Ottwell community. To say I (and my own mama, who I had with me) were blown away is an understatement. With 150 students (45 of which graduated with a high school diploma that Friday - yay!), all young parents or soon to be parents completing their high school educations AND their children (age 3 weeks to 3 years) being cared for and taught under the watchful eye of early childhood teachers - all under one roof. WOW.

This facility represents only a fraction of what the Terra Centre does for young parents in our community, but it's such a special place. I read and listened to stories, met 2 year olds that remind me so much of my own son and I honestly fell so in love with this place. The sense of family, love and COMMUNITY is so strong and so important to these young families.

That statement above on the wall at Terra is so true - they DO differ, but every child deserves a childhood. This is WHY Gavin and I see so much value in helping these "not-so-well-known" organizations through our LOVEPIZZA Gives program, the work they do is so important to our community. 

And that is also why we get our son involved in our business and our LOVEPIZZA Gives program in any way that we can. He is our future and we want him to be as proud of this business as we are. We want his childhood to be filled with being a positive change in the world and a bright light in someone's day.

Our Terra Centre diaper drive was such a success - a total of 115 boxes were collected between our two stores. An average box of diapers cost between $35 to $40 per box - so that is over $4,000 in diapers. We gave away 115 pizzas as thank yous over the span of 10 days to our amazing contributors! So THANK YOU again to our customers and our downtown Edmonton & St Albert community!

OUR FIRST BIRTHDAY

January 25 2017 - supporting Zebra Child Protection Centre

For our first birthday we decided to do a BOGO ... all day. A bit of a silly idea in hindsight... umm yep. We were literally lined up out the door, across the front of our shop and around the corner... for 10 hours straight. IN JANUARY IN EDMONTON.It was the biggest single day that we have had a LOVEPIZZA. As a team we made 822 pizza -IN ONE DAY.

Yikes.

Anyways, we decided to do a BOGO and donate $1 from each pizza we sold to Zebra Child Protection Centre AND collect (and match cash donations). Why did we choose Zebra to partner with on this big day? 

Do do you have a child, niece, nephew, grandchild or friend between the ages of 0-17 years old? Think about those children. Imagine them being in an unthinkable situation of being mentally, physically or sexually abused. It makes me sick to my stomach. In 2016 alone the Zebra Centre supported 1,515 kids - that's an average of 126 per month. In a perfect world Zebra wouldn't have to exist, but sadly that's not our reality. The work that Zebra does is SO important.

At the end of the day we donated $1470 to Zebra,and since then we have jumped at the chance to support this amazing organization in anyway we can including serving pizza before the Ladies on the Green golf tournament - a day that raised over $61,000! Amazing!!