Four young Ontario boys are spreading cheer over the Burlington and Hamilton regions this holiday season, raising money for their favourite charities along the way.
Edward Bill (who is 10 years old), Ethan Bill (8 years old), Nathan De Groot (6 years old), and Nicholas De Groot (10 years old) have been hosting charity fundraisers since 2018 and have raised more than $20,000 in the process.
Their goal is to help kids with disabilities, kids who don’t have food or toys, and kids who don’t have parents or have to spend time in the hospital for whatever reason.
“Fundraising makes me feel happy and feel great about myself,” said Edward.
The boys first started their fundraising efforts with a lemonade stand run by Edward and Ethan, which helped Edward earn a Beaver Scout badge. The boys raised $600 in donations, which they split between Milton District Hospital and the SickKids Foundation.
They followed that up by hosting a bath bomb fundraiser in 2020 that helped them raise more than $10,000 for the McMaster Children’s Hospital and Camp Ooch, a camp for families and children, such as Ethan, who have been affected by childhood cancer.
As a result of their sizeable donation to McMaster, the hospital is putting the boys’ names on their donor wall.
Their initial goal was to raise just $300, but as they raised more money, they also had to raise their goal. Soon it was $5000, then $10,000, then $20,000, and now that they have surpassed that number, the possibilities are endless.
And this year, they are doing something special for the holidays, handing out their own “Acts of Kindness” by selling advent calendars with the proceeds going towards 24 charities of their choice, each boy picking six charities.
They have been all over Burlington selling these calendars, including at Fortinos, Desi Mandi restaurant, and Costco. Burlington businesses such as Oxygen Yoga and Fitness and Code Ninjas have also donated prizes for some of the calendar purchasers.
“They wanted to help other charities that help kids, they want to help food banks, and they came up with all these ideas of all these charities they wanted to help,” said Edward and Ethan’s mom, Stacey Bourbonnais. “And that’s how we came up with the idea for this advent calendar.”
The boys also put the call out to local children to draw their own masterpieces of art that would be featured in the advent calendars.
They approached sponsors to help offset the cost of the calendars and then sold them for $25 apiece. They are continuing to sell them even as they make their cheque presentations and any additional money raised will go to topping up donations to their chosen charities.
They have already made donations to Conservation Hamilton to help plant trees, the Learning Disabilities Association of Halton-Hamilton, Halton County Radial Railway, and the Burlington Food Bank. You can follow the rest of their Acts of Kindness on their Facebook page.
Another purpose of the calendars is to bring lesser-known charities to the forefront. “Some of the charities are charities that help people that some people don’t know about,” said Nathan and Nicholas’ mom, Milena De Groot. “So we want to try to bring them to light.”
When asked what they enjoy the most about their selfless ventures, Nicholas summed it up best. “Helping others,” he said. “I want to brighten people’s day with joy and happiness.”
