It’s certainly been a feel-good week for us in the office, being able to be part of the chain of events that allowed Dotti to attend a Hedley concert on Wednesday night. You can read all about how it came to be here. For a girl who was rendered speechless days ago by the surprise tickets, it certainly looks as though Dotti and her sister had the time of our lives. Once again, sincere thanks to those involved in making this dream come true for Dotti, and to all our partners and donors who continue to help us provide such amazing experiences for such amazing Edmonton kids.
Some of you may recall that a few months back, CityTV invited us to bring a few kids down to Breakfast Television and to share what Kids Up Front was all about. Well, one of the kids left such an impression with her dream ticket request (a Hedley concert) that the great folks over at CityTV made sure that when that concert was coming through town, she would be seeing them. Not only that, but thanks to Universal Music, she gets to meet the band as well; needless to say, when we surprised her at school with the tickets today, she was left speechless. Many, many thanks to everyone involved in making this dream come true.
Jennifer Parenteau (The Way In); Dotti, our lucky ticket recipient; Christine Cunningham (Kids Up Front)
Since 2009, Quercus Solutions has actively participated with Kids Up Front Edmonton with the ultimate goal of getting more tickets in the hands of kids without substantial increases to organizational operating costs. In 2009, the total ticket donation value was $713,489 and came at an operational cost of $1.46 per ticket value dollar to Kids Up Front Edmonton. In 2011, the total ticket donation value was $1,009,974 and came at an operational cost of $1.27 per ticket value dollar. Over the course of three years, Kids Up Front has increased the ticket donation value by $295,485 but has been able to decrease the operational cost per ticket by $0.19. This is an incredible achievement, and I believe made possible by a combination of great employees at Kids Up Front, a strategic board and philanthropic donors.
– Andrew Bryson
President, Quercus Solutions
Kids Up Front is so very appreciative of the strategic partnership we have built with Quercus Solutions. Since we started working with them in 2009, they have worked tirelessly to build and maintain our database and computer systems, with a fair market value of nearly $300,000 of work; charging us for less than 10% of that work over that time frame. We look forward to a continued partnership which will allow us to provide kids even more outstanding experiences.
The University very generously arranged for us to send a number of organizations to a Pandas championship hockey game last weekend. One of the young men from Transitions said he had an amazing time at the event. Thanks to the U of A for helping us create 100 meaningful experiences that night!
As always, a private ticket donation created an unforgettable opportunity for a child at one of our partner agencies… in this case, last night’s Oilers Game was experienced by Boys and Girls Club of Strathcona County:
Awesome seats thanks so much!
We loved hearing that this little super-fan even got to take home 2 game pucks with him; what a memorable night!
It’s so hard to define a business case for Corporate Social Responsibility. That’s why we’re loving this infographic created by Your Cause. What do you think?
From a family that attended the Oil Kings game over the weekend:
I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of my family for the opportunity to watch the Oil Kings play this evening. My youngest daughter, who is developmentally delayed loved all the lights, music and cheering. She tried to cheer, and she clapped her hands when the Oil Kings scored. My oldest daughter, who is eight, liked it best when the Oil Kings scored and won the game, and she also liked the Cheemo Pyrogy toss. Thank you for providing an opportunity for a fun family night. It was our first Oil King game in a few years.
We love hearing your stories, please keep sharing them with us… certainly kicks the week off on a great note.
To truly create an effective and successful Community Investment model that serves the best interests of a community, strategic partnerships need to be formed with all stakeholders in said community. By making those investments today, we are building stronger, more rewarding futures for all those in our community. One of the ways Kids Up Front is able to deliver on our goal of creating experiences for underserved local youth and families is through our strategic partnerships with some wonderful organizations.
By sheer volume alone, one of our biggest and staunchest supporters is actually another not-for-profit organization: Northlands.
Northlands is committed to providing the best in entertainment experiences and business opportunities. This is achieved by being a producer, partner, facilitator and host, while positioning Edmonton and the surrounding region for greatness and building the prosperity of our province. We’re proud to deliver exceptional experiences to over 4,000,000 guests that attend more than 2,500 of our events in Edmonton each year. As our community grows, we look forward to growing with it.
Without fail, each time there is an event at Northlands, they go out of their way to ensure that there are tickets set aside for us to distribute to one of our 160 partner agencies, thereby creating a memorable experience for local youth that might normally be out of their reach. In 2011 alone, Northlands donated over 18,750 tickets to Kids Up Front to distribute to youth and families in the greater Edmonton area.
While working on creating their new promotional video, Northlands decided that wanted to highlight their partnership with Kids Up Front and arranged for us to bring three families from different organizations (The Way In, Brittany Lane Housing Co-op, and Spirit Keeper Youth Society) to one of the World Juniors Hockey games at the end 2011. These families got the VIP treatment with seats in the Northlands box and dinner provided (the kids were especially fond of the ice cream bars after dinner), and were all so incredibly thankful for this once-in-lifetime opportunity that Northlands had provided them with; this is just one of the many examples of their gracious community investment initiatives.
Thank you, Northlands, for all you do for Kids Up Front and the community in general; when you say Excitement is what you do best, we couldn’t agree more.
