The money raised will be distributed to the Alzheimer Society, Guelph Arts Council and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph.
Their motivation stems from the vision of former University coach and CFL player Stu Lang.
“We met Stu Lang, when he was our head coach and he was all about giving,” said the Gryphons’ Director of Football Advancement Bill Brown. “I was a coach and I was drawn to his acts of giving. He’s always trying to rally the community and society… He always asked ‘how can we use our audience to do good.’”
Recently, the team has had to find new COVID-friendly ways to give back to their community.
Enter Sarah Garrett, Manager of Football Advancement, who, along with her team, raised $5,000 over the summer for Guelph charities by selling Gryphon-themed face masks to the community.
“It (the idea) all started when we first got these masks that had our Gryphons football logo on them. We wanted to get them in the players’ hands, the coaches’ hands…” said Garrett.
“We did that and then when there was the Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Guelph we brought a bunch of those there… and people were asking how to get them.”
After a successful first round of fundraising in June, the team decided to work on a new design for a second round in July, to keep the momentum of the “Gryphon Strong” face mask initiative going.
“When we got the first masks we realized they weren’t adjustable and didn’t fit everybody so we looked for something more adjustable,” Garrett said.
On July 7 the Gryphons football staff began selling the second round of face masks to the community, keeping social distancing measures in mind.
“Basically I had a little mask store out of my house,” Garrett said. “If they’re local they gave me the money (online), then I put the mask on my porch with a business card in it, and people came to my house to pick up the masks.”
Garrett also shipped masks to various locations outside of Guelph, including Ottawa, the U.S. and to the eastern provinces.
The $5,000 raised between both rounds of face mask sales was given to the Guelph Community Foundation (GCF), a foundation that finds charities in need of funding and distributes the money accordingly.
The money donated to GCF gets pooled so the foundation is always giving back to the community. Any interest incurred on the pool of money is given directly back to the community by supporting local charities.
“The idea is that forever that money is being invested,” said Jessica Barrie, Operations and Community Engagement Manager for the GCF.
“We use the word perpetuity a lot because we invest for perpetuity, meaning there will always be some sort of earnings coming out of the foundation to support the community.”
“Donations, like the one from the Gryphons, are incredibly helpful for (charity) staff because they can continue to do the work that they do with the dollars they so desperately need.”
— Jessica Barrie
The GCF presented the team with options so that the team got to pick exactly where their donation would go. Due to COVID-19 many charities are struggling with paying for staff, while also dealing with a higher need for services.
“A lot of staff who are working at charities have had a huge volume of increase in the services needed, and then of course at the same time a massive reduction in donations and fundraising… You all of the sudden have hardly any staff because you can’t afford to pay them but your service levels have gone through the roof,” Barrie said.
“So donations, like the one from the Gryphons, are incredibly helpful for staff because they can continue to do the work that they do with the dollars they so desperately need.”
Because the foundation works with rolling grants, the money donated by the team will be given to their selected charity within a week of the initial donation.
The Gryphons football team has decided to distribute the $5,000 across three different charities in Guelph: the Alzheimer Society, to support their virtual therapeutic recreation programs for seniors in Guelph and to train volunteers; the Guelph Arts Council, to support their COVID artist support system and offset membership fees; and lastly, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph, to support the development and launch of their virtual mentoring program in Guelph.
The success from the mask drive can be seen throughout the entire city.
“I think it went really well. The fact that all we did was social media promotion, there were repeat customers, and it was done by word of mouth,” Garrett said. “The fact that you’re seeing (the masks) out and about in town, it’s just really neat to see that happening.”
The second round of fundraising ended on July 31, but Garrett says the team is still accepting donations. If you would like to get involved visit www.gryphonfootball.com or reach out on Facebook and follow @GuelphCF on Twitter.
Photos courtesy of Bill Brown via the Gryphon Football Facebook page.
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