Feb

06

For the second year in a row, we are so grateful to be the recipients of the fundraising initiatives of the AUPE Young Activist Committee. As we learned last year, this is highly motivated group of 20-somethings that are working for positive change in Alberta. Through various fundraising initiatives over the past year (such as raffles and 50-50 draws), they are able to raise $1846.40 for Kids Up Front Edmonton, which will create memorable opportunities for so many kids and families that we serve. It’s especially meaningful given that one of the women on the committee was herself a recipient of Kids Up Front tickets as she was growing up. AUPE YAC, we are so thankful for your support and generosity. Keep up your great work!

Kids Up Front Executive Director Karla Schell fills in the AUPE Young Activist Committee with all our recent news and events.

Jan

23

Jan

22

Kids Up Front Foundation Reaches Milestone of Distributing One Million Tickets to Youth Across Canada

CANADA, 22-Jan-2013 – The combined efforts of Kids Up Front Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto culminated at the end of 2012 with the distribution of the one millionth ticket, an enormous milestone in the history of the Kids Up Front Foundation.

In 1999, Kids Up Front founder, John Dalziel, sat surrounded by empty seats at the Calgary Saddledome, wondering how those unused tickets could be used. John’s original idea evolved around convincing Calgary corporations to donate their unused entertainment tickets to kids and families who couldn’t afford them. Following Calgary, Kids Up Front Foundation quickly expanded to include Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. Collectively, these foundations have now sent more than 1,000,000 underserved children and youth to arts, sports and entertainment events using donated tickets with a total face value of more than $29 million. Giving these kids a ticket into community via an event experience creates lasting positive impact. One foster parent recently told Kids Up Front: when the children have a chance to attend positive extra-curricular activities they “see improvements in almost all aspects of their lives. Their school work and attendance improves, their attitude at home stabilizes, and high-risk behaviours decrease.”

Kids Up Front Foundation continues to grow with the support of their many donors throughout their four regional foundations across the country; ticket donations are gratefully accepted with tax receipts available for the original purchase price of the ticket. On a national level, their work is reinforced through partnerships with Corus Entertainment, CIBC and TD Financial, ensuring that Kids Up Front is able to continue helping deserving kids and families.

In honour of the millionth ticket milestone and the much-lauded return of the NHL season, each Kids Up Front Foundation will be distributing a special “millionth ticket” NHL experience for a child in each city. In Edmonton, the millionth ticket NHL opportunity has been made possible by our ongoing partnership with Northlands, who has committed to providing at least six tickets to Kids Up Front for every Edmonton Oilers home game. These tickets for tonight’s home opener will be handed out in a ‘millionth ticket’ photo-opp today, for a deserving youth at the Boys & Girls Club of Strathcona County.

KIDS UP FRONT: Millionth Ticket Distribution Photo Opportunity
4:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Boys & Girls Club of Strathcona County: 3 Old Spruce Avenue Sherwood Park, AB

Kids Up Front Foundation relies on the mantra “One little ticket, one big lift”, but today they’re saying “One million little tickets, one million big lifts!” Here’s to one million tickets distributed; one million acts of kindness from donors; one million experiences. Most importantly, here’s to one million smiling kids!

Jun

15

We are thrilled to be sending over 100 kids to tomorrow night’s Children of Lir performance. This evening of Irish music and dance will showcase the Knock School of Irish Dance and special musical guests as they retell the famous Irish legend about the transformation of King Lir’s children into swans by the hand of their jealous stepmother. Should be a great show, many thanks to the Rince Parents’ Association for their generous donation of tickets to get Edmonton youth and families to what is sure to be a beautiful show.

If you missed the performance on Breakfast Television yesterday, you can check out the video clip here: Children of Lir performance on BTV

Mar

23

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.

Dotti and her sister get to meet Hedley

Mar

19

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)

Mar

01

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.

Dec

06

Did you catch us on Breakfast Television last week? In case you missed it, check out the video here. The kids were so excited to be there with us; thank you so much to CityTV for having us all on!

Kids On The Road at Breakfast Television