The generosity of Bruce House supporters is heart-warming and encouraging to staff and clients as we work together to provide services while coping with these difficult and often frightening times.
Despite the personal and financial struggles many are facing, not a single monthly donor has cancelled their monthly contribution. We also continue to see one-time donations made online and mailed in. “Thank you” seems grossly inadequate for this generosity.
If you would like to support our clients please donate today.
Some shout-outs and warm thanks to:
PPE
As March became April, we—like you—struggled to find supplies of gloves, hand sanitizers, and masks to keep our clients and staff safe.
Masks: warm thanks with no fear of “speaking moistly” to Anne and Gabriella for their donation of home-made re-useable cloth masks!
Hand Sanitizer: Jordan and the great people and handsan.ca donated hand sanitizer. This allowed us to supply clients with small bottles at a time when you couldn’t find hand sanitizer in stores. Thank you for helping us de-germ our hands when soap and water are not available!
Client Support
Shout-out to Dave Moncur for donating a kid’s bike! Keeping children healthy and active is more important than ever.
There aren’t enough words to thanks everyone at The Ottawa Food Bank, and their supporters. The Food Bank has doubled deliveries to Bruce House, enabling us to significantly increase the nutrition supports we can offer to clients. In combination with gift cards this had been instrumental in ensuring no one goes hungry. Grocery prices have gone up, and many times the cheap house brand is sold out—a difficult situation for many of our clients who are challenged to pay for groceries at the best of times.
Funding & Fundraising
Our thanks to everyone who donated online, and to East India Company, Trattoria Caffe Italia, and Flora Hall Brewing for donating 25% of take-orders on April 22. We raised over $20,000 this year – amazing for a dining event we had to cancel and transform into a virtual event! Read more here.
The Canyon Foundation has given us a grant of $50,000 to support the REST (outreach) program and direct volunteer services to clients. We are grateful for their continued support! Demands on our outreach services continue to grow, as we support clients with their daily needs, short and long term goals, and in the event of crisis or illness.
We are grateful to have received support from The James Robin Findlay Fund. This Fund has long been a supporter of Bruce House, and this most recent gift will allow us to supply personal-care kits and wellness kits to clients. This will assist clients with the extra cleaning and personal protection needed to protect themselves and others during the pandemic, and assist with healing and recovery should a client become sick.
The Ontario REALTORS Care ® Foundation, who are amazing supporters of our work, have given us a grant of over $2600 to help with COVID-19 relief efforts. We are very grateful to them, and to Anneke Cundasawmy for her continued efforts in helping us apply to the Foundation.
