It All Starts With Me

"We're Building A Dream"

It all started in 2012 when a group of caring partners (made up of local arts organizations and funders) came together with a shared purpose: to provide access to a variety of arts and culture experiences and programs to children and youth enrolled with BGCBigs.

Every year since, It All Starts with Me has made cherished opportunities increasingly more available to young people across our community—young people who might otherwise never have access to such special experiences. Through this initiative and others, we hope to inspire the imaginations of the city’s youth, in a world where diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts brings them a sense of personal pride and dignity that will carry forward into their daily lives.

Since December 2011, more than 10,000 young people have moved through Edmonton’s Arts District for immersive art experiences in our city’s Art Organizations. Children and youth have the opportunity to participate in the program thanks to the continued generosity and commitment of the partners.

Through the arts, youth have access to a variety of ways to express themselves and explore their identities in both individual and group settings. The arts motivate personal growth and self-creation through a broad range of media and genres. Artistic practice also develops important life skills through the development of confidence, critical thinking, and teamwork. Most importantly, engagement with the arts opens up new possibilities to discover one’s strengths within supportive communities and creates bridges of understanding between diverse groups of people. City Lumber and our partners and sponsors believes in the importance of this vision. We hope that this initiative builds a legacy of young people who will find creative ways to fufill their own dreams and ambitions with the support of their community and to share their experiences with friends and families.

Making Music Together

It All Starts with Me has provided us with the opportunity to allow children and youth the space to explore their curiosity around music. Funding to provide an impactful opportunity to targeted musical programing for the children and youth of BGCBigs has been an asset.

A wonderful relationship with Long & McQuade began as they provided us a discount on instruments. After valuable feedback on the sizes of the guitars, Long & McQuade guided us in purchasing the right guitars for our youngest children.

Additionally, grant dollars supported the hiring of talented. classically trained teachers, who are keen to adapt musical styles to match the musical interests of the youth, who are learning various songs they love.

This music program is now in five Club sites with 105 children and youth participating.

Testimonials

“Children get to use Club guitars and have begun learning the notes and strings of the guitar. We have seen great success with certain students, such as one girl where English is her second language. [Her] school informed us that she is selective mute. [But she] thrives in guitar class and is always involved in participating and can be very expressive with the guitars and with her face, which shows a nice understanding of her growth in the Club program.”

“One session that made me incredibly proud and excited was on April 25 at the Kinsmen Club. We told the children this would be our last day learning fingerstyle guitar and that we would move on to something else next week. Throughout the session, we practiced run-throughs of the material we had been learning the past few weeks, and all of the children had shown considerable progress. About halfway through the session, we decided to give the children a chance to share their performances of what [they learned]. Every single child [in attendance] wanted to show what they could do. Out of all the classes I have taught in other organizations, I had never seen a class with every child so eager and ready to perform. The learning environment [we] created with the children was starting to blossom and show its true colours. Watching their progress in learning a musical instrument was an extremely rewarding experience for me.”

“The Kinsmen [Club]session last Wednesday was incredible! They had managed to fully learn what we taught them and were able to play together. I've noticed that a couple of students at both clubs have all shown exceptional promise in playing the guitar and have shown much interest in the instrument and learning more, so we have advanced them to new things.”

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Since their pioneering beginnings in Manitoba (1937), the Rosen family has been committed to the quality of life in our community. This belief permeates every aspect of the company—from the staff members, who are second-generation City Lumber team members, to the spirit of community that drives the company’s corporate giving and social responsibility. The values Zita and John Rosen instilled have guided president and CEO Robert Rosen in both his corporate and charitable accomplishments. Western Canadians have greatly benefited from the Rosens’ quiet interest in arts, culture, healthcare, and the promotion of tolerance and compassion among young people.

Over seventy-five years on—with a grateful eye on the past and an optimistic and excited look to the future—City Lumber plans to remain your creative and committed business and cultural partner, and an example of corporate excellence and leadership.

Launched in 2018, the TD Ready Challenge is their annual North American program focused on providing support through grants to charities and not-for-profits who are working on solutions to help solve issues impacting people in the communities they serve. The TD Ready Challenge is a key part of the Bank’s corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment. Each year, they release a different problem statement for that year and ask organizations to submit applications that are focused on providing solutions to help address that specific problem statement. To date, they've distributed over CAD $50 million in grants to 60 non-profit and community-based organization recipients.