Advertisement

#SecretSantaGuelph event matches residents for good cause

Some residents in an Ontario city who know each other only by their Twitter handles are preparing to buy each other holiday presents in a citywide secret Santa gift exchange.

Using the hashtag #secretsantaguelph, the participants are tweeting out gift ideas, encouraging others to sign up and talking about how the event — now in its fifth year — raises money for breakfast and food programs at a public school and its neighbourhood group in one of the poorer areas of the city. Guelph is located approximately 100 kilometres west of Toronto.

Last year, the event raised $13,435, which helped Brant Avenue Public School provide breakfast five days a week for students.

The exchange was started by Bang Ly and in the first year, just 25 people took part and was “more as a quick get together to meet Guelph Twitter users that had been conversing online for a while but never in real life.”

“We had a quick response and I thought it'd be good if we added a component that gave back to the community,” the former Brant Avenue student said.

Last year, 160 people took part and Ly said it keeps growing. This year’s gift exchange will be held in the largest downtown venue, the Guelph Concert Theatre.

“It still amazes me the amount of support we get from the community when we run such a niche event. People start asking me about the next one about three minutes after the event is done,” Ly said.

In the lead up to the actual exchanging of gifts, Ly said it’s fun to watch people interact on Twitter.

“I love how eager everyone is to find out who they're gifting to,” he said.

But the night of the event, he said it’s the looks on people’s faces “show how much they care about a problem they've known about in their city and how satisfied they are for actually getting off their butts and doing something about it,” that makes all the hard work worth it for him.

“I don't think it'd be fair to say that Guelph is the most giving community in Canada, nay, the world, but we sure do one hell of a job doing it,” Ly said.

Similar events are held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and an event has been launched in London, United Kingdom, this year. Both of those events also encourage people to buy local products for their matches.

Participants in Guelph could be matched with pretty much anyone, including the city’s mayor, police chief, member of Parliament, councillors, university students, business owners, artists or stay-at-home parents.

Gift suggestions often include suggestions to buy from local businesses, including local coffee, beer, fair trade clothing and accessories, gift certificates or even decadent treats from a favourite downtown bakery.

Katherine Matthews signed up for the event initially because she feels it’s important to be part of the community, but this year she is volunteering her time because she believes it makes the city a better place.

“We can see it make a difference in lives,” Matthews said. “I am encouraging people to sign up in part because I’m invested in the event, in part because it helps local kids, in part because it’s fun.”

Matthews and her husband take part in the exchange and she said it has changed their lives.

“We've met so many great Guelph people through this event,” she said. “I also like to imagine that because these kids are eating better, they'll do better in life, and one day we'll have more people like Bang in our community, making it better, making other people's lives better.”

Click here to see a gallery of #SecretSantaGuelph participants and hints about their gifts.