In 2009, Petryna was planning a holiday party and looking for a way to give back to the community in a meaningful way. One of our staff members had recently heard there was a food bank in Sudbury specifically for infant needs. Turns out, this was news to everyone else on the team as well. We thought this was an initiative others in the community should hear about and we were definitely well equipped to get the message out. A perfect opportunity for us to be real agents for positive change in our own community. With very little time before the holiday period, we rallied together to create the “All We Need for Christmas” campaign.

Over the years, the campaign has grown considerably in scope thanks to all the local media and businesses who have joined in to make it a yearly success story. For example, in 2013, the Infant Food Bank couldn’t keep up with the need for cribs. They are cumbersome and rather expensive so naturally fewer are donated and new safety standards meant that many in need were unable to find used cribs as they once had. At the same time, we felt that there were many other local businesses who would be interested in getting involved in a more meaningful way.

Consequently, Petryna developed the “Fill-a-crib” corporate sponsorship program. Local businesses show their support by donating the funds required to purchase a crib, the crib is delivered to the sponsor’s place of business where it is displayed during the “All We Need for Christmas” campaign. Staff and clients then have the opportunity to show their support by filling the crib with their donations of baby food and infant care essentials. The crib and all the accumulated individual donations are then picked up by the Infant Food Bank in early January.

After the success of the Fill-a-Crib corporate sponsorship program, a similar program was created in 2017 called “Fill-a-Carseat”. The Infant Food Bank expressed the need for more car seats and Petryna knew there were a few dealerships that would be interested in assisting with the “All We Need for Christmas” campaign. We set to work to create a tailored corporate sponsorship program they could champion. If you would also like your company or organisation to champion a similar program or sponsor a crib, do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Not even something as big as the Covid-19 outbreak could stop our community from embracing this annual donation drive. The needs of families certainly did not stop either! The Petryna Team is used to solving problems and being digitally savvy, we brought the “Fill-a-Crib” corporate sponsorship program online with virtual cribs to fill. We provided all donors with easy access to secure online donations through allweneedsudbury.ca.

The “All We Need for Christmas” corporate sponsorship programs have been paramount to assisting the Infant Food Bank in stocking their shelves with food and care necessities as well as providing essential baby gear for families in need in our community. For Petryna, this is also a highly gratifying part of the annual campaign because we’ve set out to make a positive impact for those in need in our community and we’ve done that. In addition, we’ve made it possible for other businesses and office teams like ours, to do what we hoped to do.

The campaign has raised nearly $2,000,000.00 since its inception in 2009 and we couldn’t have done it without the overwhelming support of our community.