Giving Tuesday | What Oasis Means to Kalynna
This post is a part of our 2023 Giving Tuesday Campaign. Our goal this year is to raise $5,000 to help fund our food security, women’s counselling, and seniors’ programming. If you would like to donate, please visit our Canada Helps page. All donations over $20 will receive a tax deductible receipt.
My involvement with Oasis began in the middle of both Covid and my high school tenure. It began as an initiative to complete my requisite volunteer hours; I stayed to support the incredible community that Oasis helps - those partaking in the community center’s services and those who volunteer, or perform other valuable roles. It truly does live up to its name.
Our peerless leaders have worked immeasurably hard to keep things running as smoothly as possible during the chaos of the last few years. The number of clients served weekly in the food bank has more than doubled. Oasis continues to be a bastion of community support during these tumultuous times.
I recently had the incredible privilege to be employed by Oasis through the (Canada Summer Job thing). It was an honour to be part of such an amazing team. I have learned so much working with Oasis — food safety practices, data entry, office administration and so much more. It is also noteworthy that I developed some great friendships during this time, meeting and working with unforgettable people.
The return to providing the Wednesday food bank to an indoor system has been something that required a lot of volunteer support, a successful plan in which I am proud to have participated. Transitional periods always have their hurdles, and the excellent team at Oasis worked to make it better than ever. It’s a wonderful thing to see the smiles and positive change in demeanor once a guest receives their groceries.
It’s been good to give back to the community and I feel like I’m helping out in a tangible way.
The Oasis community is welcoming, friendly, understanding — and I am gratified to have had this amazing experience, with this amazing team.
- Kalynna
