Schulich Charity Association Students Celebrating Valentine’s Day

This February, the Schulich Charity Association (SCA) hosted its third annual Spread the Love event, in support of Stella’s Place, an organization focused on young adult mental health. We have continuously supported this organization for the past three years, because of its vision to ensure young adults are receiving the mental health care they need in order to live the life they want. As students, we know that mental health is integral to our overall health. It’s a state of well-being, where individuals can realize their own potential, be able to cope with the stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their own community. Stella’s Place helps achieve just that through the mental health services they provide to young adults and empowers them to be champions of their own recovery.

To support this amazing organization, SCA created Spread the Love. This is a candy gram fundraiser event hosted by SCA where everyone in the York University community can spread special messages to friends and loved ones with something sweet attached to it (this year we had upgraded from our regular chocolate hearts to full-size chocolate bars!). The event ignited the student spirit of service by bringing love into our school community. When someone buys a candy gram, the recipient immediately receives an e-mail that says they’ve received a candy gram from a loved one. While people would send candy grams without any expectation of return, once those emails were sent, the recipients were ready to spread the love back, so a nice snowball effect was established. Candy grams were not only sent to and by students but also family members of students, teachers and even individuals on international exchange who would buy a candy gram online for friends back at York University.

On the day of February 14th, everyone flocked to the SCA table situated at the Schulich School of Business marketplace ready to pick up their candy grams. There were so many smiling faces and lots of giggling especially when some individuals received kind messages from an “anonymous” sender. In addition, the SCA team had signs set up with sayings such as “I Support Mental Health” and “What’s Better than Giving Candy? Getting It” and many candy gram recipients readily took pictures to show their support for our mission. All proceeds were donated to Stella’s Place, and the best part was that SCA had an amazing sponsor, PM ERA Inc., who committed to a $0.50 donation to Stella’s Place for every candy gram sold. In total, PM ERA Inc. and SCA donated $1,100 to Stella’s Place!

SCA loves to support this amazing organization, ever since our first year hosting Spread the Love, where we had the opportunity to tour the Stella’s Place facility. Right away, we knew this organization was different. Stella’s Place has created a warm and welcoming space, with the look and feel of a café; an amazing space for young people to come and get the help they need. We feel strongly that mental health care should be available to anyone in need and we’re fortunate to support this organization that is striving to achieve just that.