YESS Champion

I recently took a tour of YESS’ facilities. Being a complete outsider with only a very broad idea of what Youth Empowerment & Support Services stands for, I went in expecting to be surprised, but that ended up being an extreme understatement. I jumped on board the tour because I was hoping to make a difference through my company, Burst Energy, who provides inexpensive electricity prices to both residential and commercial.

Tommy, YESS’ Sponsorship Specialist, walked me around one of their three robust buildings and explained how YESS is one of the only “full service” homeless shelters. You can’t really appreciate what they mean when they say full service until you see it firsthand. Does that mean that they provide beds, food, and blankets? Doesn’t everyone do that?

Well, it turns out that what I thought was a lot, only scratched the surface of what they actually do. Beds, food, and blankets are important, but YESS ensures that every aspect of the kids’ lives are addressed, including their physical, mental, and emotional well being. The youth who go to YESS are searching for help to rebuild their lives. YESS provides them with the help, much needed resources, support, and individual guidance through all of the different programs they offer. I knew that I had to support this work.

Since our conception, Burst Energy has made it our mandate to supply energy to Albertans at an inexpensive rate because nobody should struggle to pay for electricity. This matched perfectly with the incredible work at YESS.

To better support YESS, we are proud to announce The Power of YESS program. If you sign up and use the referral code “YESS”, we will give you some of the cheapest electricity rates possible and donate each month to Youth Empowerment & Support Services. The best part is that the donation comes off our bottom line!

Residential – $2 CAD every month.

Commercial – $2 CAD per 2,000 kWh every month.

If only 500 people sign up this year we will still be providing YESS with $12,000 annually. It’s our way of making a difference by doing what we do best: providing electricity.

Let’s help make life brighter for these youth!

To find out more about the Power of YESS Program visit burstenergy.ca.

~ blog post written by David Mendenhall, Burst Energy

Collin Bruce is a driven, dedicated, and generous man surrounded by a loving family and a committed team of professionals. A strong supporter of YESS, he is always looking for what we need and finding ways to help.

As the leader of the #1 mortgage broker in Canada, his team sponsors and attends YESS functions like gala and golf, and they host a barbeque each summer for the youth attending our day programs at the Armoury Resource Centre.

Recently, Collin funded some commercials to profile the situations of youth who are at risk and experiencing homelessness, and the importance of YESS in the community. These features are meant to connect to youth so that they know YESS is there to support them, and also to increase understanding and compassion by the general public for both our youth and our organization.

Collin provides a generous donation every year for recreation, knowing how important it is for youth to de-compress and have some fun; after all, they are still kids. He also understands the harsh realities of our youth and gives monthly to offset the costs of transportation, housing, and supports, knowing that beating poverty is a complex issue and multi-faceted support is a critical element to changing young lives around.

Collin understands the importance of art, both for positive expression and sheer joy. He has purchased our youths’ art for his new offices and each year supports SONiC’s guitar auction, donating $10,000 regardless of what amount the bid reaches. At Christmas, we know we will see Collin with gift cards and treats for the kids.

He learned philanthropy from an early age from his parents, who also find so many ways to support the kids of YESS. We are so fortunate to have Collin Bruce, his family, and his team on our side.

Dave and Gwen Burroughs are true champions of the youth who come to YESS, and have been for almost a decade.

YESS provides support to youth who are in crisis and experiencing homelessness through a variety of channels ranging from immediate emergency shelter to ongoing support programs and individual guidance, and the Burroughs are with us every step of the way to ensure our kids get what they need to succeed.

Their generosity has provided access to counselling, medical care, hot meals, and a safe place to spend the night for hundreds of youth. Executive coaching funded by Dave and Gwen has allowed YESS to invest in staff so they can give their very best to the kids every day. A gift to a YESS endowment fund enabled the fund to begin paying out this year. Gwen’s paintings have been popular auction items at YESS galas.

Whether it is selling a race car to raise funds for YESS, inviting friends to YESS events, or building the YESS endowment fund to ensure future support for our kids, Dave and Gwen will do just about anything to provide the resources our kids need to succeed, and that makes them true champions of the hundreds of kids who come to us each year looking for help.

Ava-Lynn Carruthers is a 6-year-old with a passion for helping YESS. She thinks no one should be homeless, especially not kids. Ava has a heart of gold and has helped us at a number of events—doing everything from preparing gifts for gala to working at the water station at the Taste of Edmonton, all with her mom, Brandi, who works casually at YESS.

This summer, Ava saw the YESS summer wishlist and asked her mom and grandma how she could help. She wanted to buy 200 pairs of socks for kids who would need them in the winter, 100 for girls and 100 for boys. With that idea, Ava’s Summer Fundraiser began.

Ava came to YESS to tell us about her idea, and to take a few brochures with her to share with her friends and family. With her mom’s help, she even made an event page on Facebook to kick off her fundraiser. All summer, Ava took a donation box almost everywhere she went. With every small donation, Ava got more and more excited about how many socks she would be able to buy and donate. A few people she talked to even told her that they would be dropping off socks at YESS as well. Ava’s family spread the word, and one of their friends took Ava’s message to her office at Enbridge. She came back to Ava with great news: $3000 would be donated to Ava’s Summer Fundraiser!

Ava went to Enbridge to collect her Very Big Cheque, but there was one more surprise in store. Enbridge donated $5000 for Ava to take to YESS! And that was on top of the 276 pairs of socks Ava had collected from family and friends.

We are very proud of Ava and her fellow donors for this successful fundraiser. Her passion to help others has done so much good in the community. It just takes one little girl with a mission to help so many people!