Vaughan officials help young philanthropists kick off the YMCA Kids Challenge

Today, the YMCA of Greater Toronto, together with Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and Vaughan-Woodbridge Member of Parliament Francesco Sorbara, kicked off the annual YMCA Kids Challenge at the Vaughan City Hall YMCA Child Care Centre.

The annual fundraising walk brings the YMCA child care community in the GTA together to help families in need while teaching kids about community. More than 20,000 kids at YMCA child care centres, after school programs and schools in the GTA participated this afternoon. This year’s goal is to raise $250,000, which will help create more spaces for children and families at health and fitness centres, child care locations, camps and more.

Mayor Bevilacqua and MP Sorbara joined Katie Lowe, General Manager of the currently under construction Vaughan Metropolitan Centre YMCA, to celebrate the kick-off of the walk with children from the Vaughan City Hall YMCA Child Care Centre. The centre provides high quality, licensed care for children 18 months to four years of age in a stimulating environment so they can learn, grow and thrive.

“Our charity’s annual YMCA Kids Challenge fundraiser helps children get healthy by being active at the Y while helping others,” says Medhat Mahdy, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Toronto. “Being active and giving both help improve well-being and we can’t wait to bring even more children in Vaughan opportunities to grow strong and healthy when we open our new Centre of Community in the city next year.”

Members of the public can show their support by making a donation to the Y through the YMCA Kids Challenge before May 30, 2019. For more information, visit ymcagta.org/kidschallenge.

Photo caption: Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, Vaughan-Woodbridge MP Francesco Sorbara and Katie Lowe, General Manager of the currently under construction Vaughan Metropolitan Centre YMCA, kick off the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s annual Kids Challenge with the children at the Vaughan City Hall YMCA Child Care Centre.

About the YMCA of Greater Toronto

For more than 165 years, we’ve provided leadership and worked with partners solving complex social problems to create real, measurable outcomes that have strengthened the social health and fabric of communities. As a charity, the Y offers a variety of programs responding to the needs of the community, including education and training, employment and immigrant services, family and youth services, health and fitness programs, child care and camps. Serving the population of the Toronto, Durham, Peel, York and Halton regions and Dufferin County, last year the YMCA made more than 580,000 connections across 440 locations.

For more information contact:
Communications, YMCA of Greater Toronto, media@ymcagta.org