Campaign #4: Upstream Ottawa Mental Health Community Support
For our fourth campaign, we committed to raising funds for Upstream's back-to-school and back-to-work programs. Upstream is a local initiative dedicated to helping both adults and youth to recover from mental health hardship and substance abuse issues. In addition to their back-to-school and back-to-work programs, Upstream has several other unique programs designed to provide the best quality of care to Ottawa citizens. Upstream’s vision is to provide client-focused, equitable, meaningful, and community-based care for each of their diverse clients. Upstream believes whole heartedly that mental health struggles are different in everyone.
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Fundraiser #1 for Upstream: Bottle Drive
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Our first fundraiser consisted of a bottle drive to raise funds. Friends, family, and strangers from around the city donated bottles and cans to the cause.
Fundraiser #1 for Upstream continued: Lotus Tote Bags
LOTUS TOTE BAGS!
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Our Lotus Tote Bags are 13” by 16” canvas bags, that come embellished with The Lotus Project logo. The Lotus Tote Bag is multi-use, ecofriendly, and perfect for all your carrying needs.
We have remaining stock. If you missed getting your Lotus Tote Bag, do not fear! Please email thelotusproject20@gmail.com with your inquiry and then follow the purchasing directions below:
For only $10.00, you can get yours today! Payments can be made by cash or E-Transfer and will be delivered to you.*
For E-Tranfer: Please email the cost of your desired number of bags to thelotusproject20@gmail.com, and indicate the number of bags you would like in the description.
For cash payments: Please reach out to us personally to coordinate.
All proceeds will be donated to Upstream Ottawa’s back-to-school and back-to-work programs!
*If distance is an issue, don’t hesitate to reach out to us personally!
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Fundraiser #2 for Upstream: Trivia Night at Barley Mow Merivale
To conclude our campaign for Upstream Ottawa, we partnered with Barley Mow Merivale to host a Trivia Night fundraiser. We are pleased to announce that the event was a huge success! There were approximately 80 people in attendance, and all together, between entry and 50/50 tickets, the event raised $1495! This almost solely surpassed our goal of $1500 for the whole campaign. The fundraiser included 6 rounds of trivia, and prizes for the top 3 winning teams. There were a variety of prizes, all provided by some amazing sponsors (listed below).
We are so grateful for the support of everyone at Barley Mow Merivale, Upstream Ottawa and the community for making this event possible.
Between the bottle drive/tote bag fundraiser and the trivia night, The Lotus Project has raised $2063.71 for Upstream Ottawa Mental Health Support, which greatly surpasses our goal of $1500. All proceeds will go towards Upstream's back-to-school and back-to-work programs. A massive thank you again to everyone who supported this campaign!
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Sponsors: Ottawa Fury FC, Fat Les's Chip Stand, Exhalo Spa, Omnia Official, Holey Confections, Honey Coffee, Landshark Lager, Ashton Brewing Company, Camp Otterdale and The Barley Mow Merivale.
Campaign #3: Candlelighters
Candlelighters (now adopted by CHEO) was an organization that provided on and off treatment for families struggling with a cancer diagnosis. Candlelighters offered strength and support in any way they could, and we loved fundraising for them. We aimed to raise $1,600 for this initiative, with all funds going towards parking passes for families who make daily or weekly trips to treatment facilities. One pass, costing $90, provided free parking for those in need for a full month. We helped roughly 17 families with these payments during a difficult time. We encourage you to visit the CHEO website to learn more about the cause.
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Fundraiser #1 for Candlelighters: Bracelet fundraiser ​
Our first of 2 fundraisers was another Lotus Bracelet Fundraiser!
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They came back in the colour black, and gained significance as they meant a little extra to Candlelighters: Candlelighters' Courage Bead Program allows a child in cancer treatment to make a necklace or bracelet with beads, and with every "poke, procedure, chemotherapy or surgery", they will be awarded with a bead to add to their story.
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They were $6.00 each and all purchases were done via E-Transfer.
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All orders were sent out via post to remain contactless and safe due to the uprising of the Omicron COVID strain.
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Fundraiser #2 for Candlelighters: Kickback night at Kelseys Barrhaven​
The Kickback night for Kelseys Barrhaven had a great turnout! Thanks to our amazing volunteers, supporters and Kelseys staff, we were able to have a great night of fundraising. By the end of the night, the total funds raised from the raffle, 50/50 draw and 10% of the dinner sales was $1,020.80! This was absolutely amazing and we are so grateful for everyone that helped and came out to support Candlelighters/CHEO.
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With the grand totals from the Kickback night and the Lotus Bracelet sales, we surpassed our goal of $1,600 for Candlelighters and raised $2,182.13! We couldn't have done this without the amazing support from the community. This was much more than we had imagined, and we are so happy to be using this to help families in need.
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We would like to note that Candlelighters has joined forces with CHEO, but all the funds still went to where they were originally intended: to the Parking Pass program.
Campaign #2: Caldwell Family Centre
For this campaign, we decided to branch out to a family program. We realized that the pandemic has been tough on everyone, especially struggling families. The Caldwell Family Centre has several different programs that provide essential items to families in need. Including: meals, warm clothing, and technology to families that need it.
Our goal for this project was $1600, starting with a bottle drive. We chose to do a bottle drive because it represents something that may not serve a purpose to you, but can make a world of difference in the life of your neighbor. We also had our Gofundme up and running, in case anyone preferred to return their bottles themselves and make an absolutely contactless contribution or simply make a cash donation.
Fundraiser #1 for Caldwell: Bottle drive​
We launched our bottle drive fundraiser at the beginning of January and completed it in late February. We drove around the Barrhaven/Nepean area and picked up bottles from our amazing supporters. By the end of the fundraiser, we had raised over $1000 with the money from the bottles and the GoFundMe.
Fundraiser #2 for Caldwell: Lotus bracelets​
For our second fundraiser for the Caldwell Family Centre, we have decided to sell Lotus bracelets! They were all handmade and after many hours of work, we created a fun bracelet that represented our project. We had already raised $1,216, meaning we only needed a few hundred more to reach our goal! With the new Covid-19 restrictions, we were unable to drop off the bracelets in person. Instead, we decided that we were going to mail them and had deliveries being sent out weekly.
We are happy to announce that the lotus bracelet fundraiser was a great success! We sold over 75 bracelets, bringing our total past our goal to $1,723. Following the conclusion of our fundraiser, we received a couple extremely grateful donations from TD bank and Correia Creations. With the bottle drive, bracelet sales and extra donations, the final total came out to $2,300! This was so much more than expected, and we were very excited to give it to the Caldwell Family Centre. Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, we weren't able to bring the cheque to Caldwell immediately, but once we were permitted, we visited the Family Centre and met so many lovely staff members and volunteer workers during our tour. We learned so much more about the Centre's purpose and their history. It was an amazing experience and it showed us just how fortunate we are. We are so happy we were able to make a difference for The Caldwell Family Centre by providing over 1000 healthy meals for struggling families. We are so thankful for the community's support throughout this fundraiser!
We purchased most of the items at Walmart and brought everything to the Cornerstone women not long after. It was amazing to see that our first campaign was such success!
We launched the GoFundMe Friday afternoon. We set our goal at $400, based off the products we are going to buy for the shelter.
On the same day later on, we had reached our first goal!
On the following day, after several shares of our posts, positive messages and many appreciated donations, we raised over $1000!
Campaign #1:
In this campaign, we fundraised for the Cornerstone Housing for Women. We were so happy to be supporting women in need and we purchased several products for the shelter with 100% of the proceeds. The products include: feminine hygiene products, warm clothes, toiletries, gift cards and more!
We launched the Gofundme on Friday, December 4th.
We are beyond grateful for absolutely everything. Our minds are blown and we cannot believe we raised this much money in so little time! Our final count including cash donations came out to more than $1700! We were thrilled to bring all of the items purchased with this to the Cornerstone women. This has been an amazing first initiative and we cannot wait to continue helping local shelters. Thank you so much!