By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On December 1, Burlington Helping Burlington (BHB) held an event at Squires Gastro Pub entitled “Breakfast on Santa’s Tab.” The free event was a fundraiser for Liam’s Mission to benefit SickKids, all because of Liam Wilson, a nine-year-old boy living with cystic fibrosis.
Liam’s condition means that he receives ongoing care at SickKids — and that experience made Liam and his family want to bring some cheer to children staying at that hospital. Liam’s Mission is the result: the family raises money for SickKids via partnerships with local businesses and events, and puts together special deliveries for children at the hospital over the holidays.
This year, due to Liam’s illness, his mother Deana Wilson hasn’t had the time to organize their usual toy drive and called BHB in to help.
“Deana Wilson called us literally less than three weeks ago and said, ‘My son’s really sick,’” BHB’s Julie Neal said. “[She said] ‘Normally I’m ahead of the ball, we have lots more stuff. We start [Liam’s Mission’s toy drive] in September, but he’s been in and out of the hospital. Can you help?’ And today is the product of three weeks of us on the ground making some phone calls. And we just had a massively successful event.”
Neal said that BHB has been wanting to collaborate with Liam and Deana for over a year but that once the group became a registered charity, the logistics of the partnership became easier.
Although Liam is not a Burlington resident, because his hometown, Milton, is under the Halton Region umbrella, BHB was able to make the initiative work. Attendees at the breakfast enjoyed a meal on “Santa” and brought along toy donations for Liam’s Mission.
Neal said that the group has accumulated truck-loads of toys, and has had to use Neal’s garage to store excess gifts.
Their goal for this year was to collect three U-Haul vans full of toys, which Liam has achieved in the past.
Deana is also collecting toys in Milton and BHB in other locations across Burlington. They have until December 8 to collect the gifts and will be distributing them on December 10.
Burlington’s Verecan Financial sponsored the event and paid for all the meals that were given out to attendees.
Josh Sheluk, a member of BHB’s board of directors, works with Verecan, which is how the consulting group got involved with the event. Ten employees of Verecan volunteered to help at the event, busing tables and helping customers. Verecan also gifted a $300 restaurant gift card and a hotel getaway to Deana, and Satish Kalla, the owner of Squires, gave Liam two tickets to a Toronto Maple Leafs game.
Dare to be Youth’s CEO and director Shannon Tobin was also in attendance, due to the charity’s collaboration with BHB.
Neal said that part of BHB’s 2025 mandate is to work with children’s mental health and wellness agencies and that partnering with Dare To Be Youth (DTBY) was a perfect fit.
“We’re not just looking at marginalized youth, we’re looking at youth in general,” Neal said. “And everybody’s welcome in her program, which is so fabulous.”
Neal said that Tobin referred her to Zuru Toys, who DTBY worked with during a live auction event in October. Zuru donated two storage units full of toys to Liam’s Mission.
BHB will also be partnering with DTBY on a golf tournament next year and donated $500 to a DTBY initiative designed around building schools in Kenya.
“The partnership has already started flourishing,” Neal said. “And the more people that get involved, the better we’re going to be for our community. So we don’t ever want to just target ourselves to one branch or one organization.”
Neal said that BHB has received some criticism due to the fact that SickKids is not local to Burlington. “The physical location of SickKids may be Toronto, but hardly anybody in that hospital is from Toronto, they’re all from surrounding areas.”
BHB plans to make the breakfast an annual event.
For more information on Burlington Helping Burlington, click here to go to their website. To read more about Liam’s Mission, click here.
