BONNYVILLE – Leading up to Christmas, Lakeland locals Clayton Anderson and Colby Wrobel raced around Bonnyville during their work day collecting 983.77 lbs of food donations from local businesses and individuals to give to the Bonnyville Friendship Centre’s community food bank.
For every pound that was collected during the food drive, an equal dollar amount was provided by MasTec Canada to the Kids Help Phone, a 24/7 Canada-wide organization that supports youth through text, phone and its online site.
Anderson, who is a construction manager for MasTec Canada in Bonnyville, explained “The whole idea behind it is, it's called ‘Give Where We Live’ initiative. It's a program that we rolled out a couple years ago now. Every one of our divisions within MasTec Canada, which is primarily located in Western Canada, we go to the communities - for us locally, we went to the Friendship Centre - and we try to see where we can help with donations.”
From Dec. 13-17, Anderson and Wrobel connected to local vendors and businesses that the company works with, letting them know about the initiative and that for every pound of food donated, it would translate to a dollar given to support another charity.
“Essentially the initiative is built to get out, talk to the communities, to help, and let them know what we'd like to try and support – and it went really well this year,” said Anderson.
In total, company-wide the 2021 Give Where We Live initiative collected 8,967.71 lbs of donations for food banks in communities, which means MasTec Canada will be donating $8,967.71 to the Kids Help Phone. The non-profit has been around for 30 years supporting young people facing issues from crises to everyday concerns of growing up.
“Bonnyville (food bank) has been struggling this year with getting stuff to be able to distribute in their hamper packs there. So, we wanted to get a list from them of what they'd like to see and then we just scooted around and went and had those discussions with vendors and they were really accepting of it.”
Last year, the company was able to gather roughly 16,000 lbs, recalls Anderson. He added that the difference in donations did not reflect a reduced interest for businesses to take part in the initiative, but rather economic factors.
“There's a large portion of the community that is potentially in a bind... If you were able to donate absolutely, and if you weren't, it's completely understandable. It's been a pretty trying couple of years for folks and businesses alike. I think that's what it had to do with. Industry as a whole is really taking a hit the last couple years,” said Anderson.
Growing up in the community, Anderson explains one of the reasons they had chosen the Friendship Centre’s Food Bank is because “We've seen how much of an impact that can have on a community. Being able to go there in a time of need to get the support that you required.”
“We have a lot of respect for folks that are able to say, ‘Hey, you know what, I need a hand. I could use a little bit of support here.’ It's difficult enough to ask. So, we felt that donating to the Friendship Centre would help provide folks in the area with food and a better Christmas.”
Although Anderson and Wrobel hope to donate their time by volunteering at the Friendship Centre in the New Year, they say the least they could do is go around and ask others to help donate.
MasTec Canada describes ‘Give Where We Live Day’ as an initiative that is “intended to highlight our commitment to our communities, engage our teams in social endeavors and to showcase the incredible impact one day of giving can have across our organization and into our communities.”
“Moving forward, MasTec Canada will continue to do this Give Where We Live initiative and hopefully next year we can beat our numbers,” said Anderson.
