How we Got Started

Many years ago, Christmas of 1996 to be exact, there was a family from Brampton whose house had burned down just days before Christmas. The Salvation Army put out a call to action to ask the community to donate clothing, house wares and food to help the family. April and Sarah Rutka, who were students at the time, heard about the tragedy and wanted to help in a unique way. They knew the family celebrated Christmas, so the sisters thought that having a fully decorated Christmas tree might be a nice gift to wake up to on Christmas morning. With that idea, Sarah and April set out to purchase a real tree, the stand, and asked family and friends to donate the trimmings. After the holidays, the message back to April and Sarah was that the family was "overjoyed with the gift and the tree made their holiday special and made them feel normal again". That sparked the idea with the sisters to continue to donate Christmas trees to families in need during the holidays.

Since then, the word spread about April and Sarah's idea and the donations poured in. Over the years, the sisters pulled together a team of dedicated volunteers who were also passionate about the cause to make Christmas bright for low income families. Since 1996, the Christmas packages evolved from a fully decorated, artificial Christmas tree to also include a Christmas dinner, warm winter clothing, and a gift or two for each child to open on Christmas day.

Today Holiday Helpers is a registered charity with a steering committee of 9 people that meet year round and a volunteer team of 350 people. In 2011, Holiday Helpers is aiming to collect enough donations to help 200 families which is approximately 600 people in need.