Konrad Kopacz has been engaging in charitable work for many years, but it wasn’t until he started working with Santa Comes to Bay Street that Kopacz began to feel that he was making a real difference.

Santa Comes to Bay Street puts together customized gift packages for mothers and their children who find themselves in shelters during the holiday season. Instead of the usual round-up of generic toys and used items, each family receives a package of new items they have requested, including necessities such as toiletries and some clothing that they cannot afford to buy themselves.

Says Kopacz: “I can’t stand by knowing that families, and young children especially, don’t have access to the basic necessities to live a normal life.”

The packages include a wide range of items, from clothes and toys to important necessities and “little pleasures,” Kopacz says, such as hats, gloves, pajamas, toothbrushes, toothpaste, crafts and meal certificates.

Recipients register for one of a number of items that the organization lists on its website. Along with this single, “wish,” Kopacz says, “we provide other gifts that help put a smile on their faces. You can actually feel the joy people experience when they receive something they want but cannot afford.”

Kopacz says he gets a lot of satisfaction from working closely with the 10-year-old organization to extend its sponsorships, expand the number of shelters it supports and ensure that each gift package meets the needs of the recipient family. “I wanted to make a bigger difference,” he says of his efforts to help Santa Comes to Bay Street, a relatively new organization, to become established.

Kopacz is an investment advisor with Queensbury Securities Inc. and director of business development for its sister organization, Queensbury Group, both of Toronto. At Santa Comes to Bay Street, he sits on the executive committee and is director of marketing. He wears many other hats as well within the organization.

“Everyone pitches in when necessary,” Kopacz says, “and we have a great team in place.”

Kopacz spends a couple of hours a day on weekdays and most weekends helping out. “My role is to help create awareness for our charity,” he says, “while diligently searching out individual and corporate sponsors.”

He also pitches in when its time to put the gift bags together, an enormous task that involves assembling custom packages for about 1,400 recipients.

Santa Comes to Bay Street’s annual event takes place around Christmas, but Kopacz and his team are in contact with sponsors and retail partnerships throughout the year, arranging donations and getting discounts on gifts.

“Our team is continually searching out new opportunities,” he says, “to make the next event more successful.”

Last year, Santa Comes to Bay Street’s ninth annual gift-bagging event was held at the Design Exchange on Bay Street in November. Says Kopacz: “We also rang the TMX opening bell a couple of weeks before the event to help create national awareness for our cause.”

The long-term aim of the program is to increase the number of families benefiting from the initiative. The growing number of corporate sponsorships is helping to achieve that aim. In addition, Santa Comes to Bay Street is looking into applying for a range of government grants to help it expand its activities. IE

To view a video with Konrad Kopacz, go to www.investmentexecutive.com.

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