RELIEF | RECOVER | RESTORE
The Goodness Pop-Up Shop – GOOD News! in Canada
It was more than just a shop that was popping up at Glad Tidings in Burlington, Ontario! The heart of parents and children were rising as they walked around and picked out their Back-To-School items. Repeatedly, people attending were tearful, thankful, and expressed how they were OVERwhelmed with all they were receiving.
Over 120 families and hundreds of children have been blessed through this outreach. As a result of this church’s many foster families and their connection to the Foster Parent community in the Burlington area, these often forgotten heroes were helped to make back-to-school a magical time for the children now in their care.
My foster mommy friends are SO thankful and blown away by this event! I’m getting so many messages, thanking me for the invite and just full of gratitude for how awesome everything was! Thank you very much for opening this up to the foster community. We felt so loved today!!!
Holy Bates, Community Engagement Pastor at Glad Tidings and event coordinator said,
I just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate The Goodness Project for your incredible generosity to our community. We keep hearing stories of people who felt such a tangible expression of love at The Goodness Pop Up Shop last Saturday. THANK YOU PAM!
Holy Bates
A local news station did a piece on Back-To-School shopping and talked about the financial strain puts on families. They stated that the average family spends $500 per child on clothing and supplies. During a pandemic with high unemployment rates and rising inflation, the strain has turned to a burden for many… until The Goodness Pop Up Shop came to town!
An Abundance of Goodness
Everyone was blown away with the amount of supplies for each child given at The Goodness Pop-Up Shop that actually valued at $500 per child!
- 1 Christmas dress outfit
- 2 casual outfits
- 1 pair of shoes
- 1 sweater
- 1 coat
- 1 hat
- Accessories: hats, purses, ties, headbands, hair accessories
- 1 backpack with school supplies inside
- 1 VERY large bag of candy
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, numbers in the building were limited, so families were booked in times from 9am to just after 5pm. Every family got their own Glad Tiding friendly volunteer personal shopper to help them choose from the thousands of items sourced through The Goodness Project Canada. This added personal touch made the event stand out above others we’ve been a part of.
What They Said
The response to this event has been phenomenal and they just keep coming in. We have removed any names or identifying statments from attendees comments to protect their privacy.
Thank you sooooo much for your beautiful hearts and Goodness Shop. I was just bursting with pride to be able to call Glad my “home”. Talking with my mom and seeing the girls sooo excited with their new clothes for school was such a blessing. One of the girls had to run and show our dog her beautiful new purse. The girls have had a rough go, but you all brought such happiness to them. THANK YOU and your amazing team!!!!!!
Thank you so much for the beautiful clothing for a little girl, newly here from India with her parents. Thank you so very much.
Glad Tiding’s Partners
Glad Tiding’s Burlington would like to thank all those organizations who helped them to get the word out to the community. Here’s a listing of those amazing partners:
Hope Food Bank, Share Noel GT, Neighbour Care Network-Families in Crisis, Community Partners, Children’s Aid Societ (CAS), NExt Door Social Space, KErr Street Mission, Centre for Skills Development of Burlington, Partnering Aldershot, SSVP Holy Rosary, Saint Vincent de Paul, Safe Families Canada, and People’s Church in Hamilton.
