McDonald’s raising funds for early childhood centre
The non-profit West Island Association for the Intellectually Handicapped (WIAIH) is getting a boost from local McDonald’s restaurants in its push to raise funds for a new early childhood development centre for disadvantaged families.
WIAIH’s Kizmet Centre will expand its offering of programs for families with kids up to the age of six, to include programs for families under financial and other hardship, in addition to programs for children with developmental disabilities.
The association has so far raised about $722,000 of the $1.7 million needed to build the new facility next to its Pat Roberts Developmental Centre in the Ste-Geneviève neighbourhood, located close to disadvantaged areas around western Pierrefonds.
“We’re going to expand the existing (Pat Roberts) building,” said Natalie Chapman, WIAIH’s executive director and leader of the Kizmet project.
McDonald’s franchise owners Frédéric Cassir and Gail Cassir, who operate six restaurants in the West Island and St-Laurent, will contribute proceeds from the fastfood chain’s annual McHappy Day fundraiser to the Kizmet project.
Guests of the Cassirs’ restaurants in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Pierrefonds and St-Laurent will have a chance to contribute $1 to the project, with every purchase of specific items, starting Wednesday. On McHappy Day, May 3, every purchase of a coffee, Big Mac or McHappy meal will contribute one dollar to WIAIH’s project.
The contribution from Cassirs’ McDonald’s restaurants will add to a growing list of sponsors, which have donated to WIAIH’s project.
The association started raising funds for its new centre on 2014, and dubbed it “Kizmet.” The name comes from the Turkish “kismet,” which means “destiny” or “fate.”
“We think of it as ‘beautiful destinies’ for the children that we’re going to help, at an early age,” said Liam Chapman, WIAIH’s media coordinator.
The Pat Roberts Centre offers programs to help families raise children with developmental disabilities and intellectual handicaps such as autism. Kizmet, to be built next door, will add enough room to take on up to 30 more children with their parents, in addition to the 50 children the Pat Roberts Centre already serves, Natalie Chapman said.
“We need more space and that was the original idea,” she said.
That’s when the association decided to offer its services to families living in hardship in addition to children with intellectual disabilities.
“What you do with a child with developmental delays is exactly what all children need,” Chapman said. “It may be a little more intensive if they’ve got autism or something, but still (all children) need love and attachment and play, and parents that are engaged.”
Families in poverty, single parents, and recent immigrants typically need programs to help their children’s early development. This is the case for one in four families in areas around western Pierrefonds, Chapman said.
“One of the things we want to do at Kizmet is provide a place where parents can meet each other,” she said. “Because it makes them stronger if they know they’re not alone, and that other people have the same issues.”
Research shows that 70 per cent of mental health problems arise from bad experiences in the first six years of life, Chapman said.
McDonald’s franchise owner Frédéric Cassir said his decision to contribute McHappy Day donations to WIAIH’s Kizmet project was an obvious one. “It’s a local project, and we’ve put our efforts together to rally the community.”
WIAIH hopes to start construction of the two-storey centre this summer, and open the 7,000-square-foot facility early next year. The centre will include a gymnasium, play rooms, a multipurpose room, meeting areas, a community kitchen and offices.