Two Bradford sisters are working to bring Christmas to Barrie this May.
Since 2019, Sarah and Emily Dahlgren have raised more than $75,000 for various community causes in Bradford through their non-profit, A Bradford Christmas. This year, they’re hoping to collect $100,000 for Barrie-based Gilda's Club Simcoe Muskoka over an eight-month campaign expected to launch on May 1.
In a social media post, Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka described the campaign as “an incredible well of generosity,” and thanked Sarah and Emily for their “gift of energy and youthful enthusiasm.”
“We’re not leaving Bradford; Sarah and I are Bradford residents, but I think the goal for A Bradford Christmas is always to keep growing and become bigger and be able to help more community members and charities,” Emily said.
That’s just what they’ve done, with efforts for various community groups including:
- filling special Christmas hampers for Bradford’s Helping Hand Food Bank in 2019
- raising more than $50,000 for the food bank in 2020
- raising almost $5,000 for WOW Living’s Out of the Cold Cafe in 2021
- raising more than $14,000 for Emily’s House in 2022
In 2023, Sarah and Emily shifted their focus to networking after the board of A Bradford Christmas voted in favour of expanding into the “very up-and-coming city” of Barrie.
Emily explained it was an easy decision because many of the sponsors they’ve had over the past few years are already from Barrie, and A Bradford Christmas currently receives “so much support” from the city’s residents.
“We joined the Barrie Chamber Of Commerce back in April and they have been a tremendous help,” Sarah said, noting members have introduced them to new residents, business leaders and representatives from other charities.
While they still hope to maintain ties with Bradford, “Barrie has really welcomed us with open arms, which we’re grateful for,” Emily said.
Through that process, Sarah and Emily met with almost a dozen different charities in Barrie, touring their locations and learning more about their work to help the community.
“All the charities we met with were absolutely wonderful,” Emily said, but “there was something about Gilda’s Club that our board connected with and found truly special.”
Named after comedian Gilda Radner, Gilda’s Club is a charity dedicated to providing support, education and hope to people affected by cancer, including family members and friends of those diagnosed, children, and people who have lost someone to the disease.
“They treat the person, not the disease itself," Sarah said. "We just got a good connection with it for some reason. It’s hard to explain."
“They support anyone affected by cancer, which is huge. We’ve personally lost loved ones to cancer, so being in a space like that where you feel that support from everyone is really lovely,” Emily added.
As if that weren’t already a good enough reason to want to work together, Sarah and Emily added that meeting Aaron Lutes, executive director of Gilda’s Club, and seeing his passion for the cause really sealed the deal.
While the upcoming campaign might seem ambitious, the sisters took the time to try to learn and understand the needs of the community before recommending it to the board.
“We wanted to really be a part of the community before we fundraised for them. You want to be familiar with the people, and it’s all been a wonderful experience,” Emily said. “That was a really lovely lens to look through.”
While A Bradford Christmas has been officially registered as a non-profit since May of 2022, the next big step is to become a registered charitable foundation, which would allow them to issue tax receipts. Luckily, Gilda’s Club will be able to handle that for this campaign.
And in the meantime, the sisters have more than enough to keep them busy planning the various fundraising effort of the campaign, which is set to include Toonie jars at local businesses, a silent auction in November and for the first time, live events.
“Since we ran mostly in COVID, we didn’t really get to have a lot of big in-person events — actually none. So we are thrilled to be able to do big in-person events,” Emily said, adding that they already have a handful of family-friendly ideas planned, and are looking forward to announcing them in future.
They’re also looking to bring back the businesses partnerships that helped them find past success, especially with restaurants.
One notable example was a partnership with Salim Bardai, owner of Freshii Bradford, who donated $1 from every bowl sold for one day, and then extended it one week in the next year's campaign.
After that, Sarah said other businesses were calling them, asking to participate.
“That’s a big part of when we started, especially in 2020, we really wanted to support small businesses, but we’re also trying to fundraise for the charity, and it’s worked really, really well,” she said.
Other long-time supporters include: Rice Group and Addictive Design, the latter of whom created the logo and website for A Bradford Christmas.
“Our parents, they were our first supporters. They did the meetings and the driving and the letter making and the paper cuts and everything,” Emily said, noting the pair were 15 and 16 when they started and couldn’t drive themselves.
Sarah also appreciated their parents helping at all hours.
“The late nights and the early morning. We would get up at 6 a.m. and go to bed at (midnight), so it’s full days,” she said.
While Emily, 18, is still finishing school, Sarah, who just turned 20, is currently taking time to focus on A Bradford Christmas full time, but neither of the sisters are paid for their efforts with the non-profit and both plan to give 100 per cent to help Gilda’s Club.
“We’re really grateful for our community and all that they have done for us so far, and we can’t wait for this campaign,” Sarah said.
The sisters welcome any interest from those looking to sponsor or participate and are also currently accepting applications for board members as the term is set to end in May.
Anyone who wants to help can visit abradfordchristmas.com, or for updates follow A Bradford Christmas on Facebook and Instagram.
For more information about Gilda’s Club, visit gildasclubsimcoemuskoka.org.
