Dreams Take Flight is a non-profit organization primarily made up of volunteers from Air Canada and the Air Canada family who organize the trip of a lifetime for close to 1,000 medically, mentally, physically, socially or emotionally challenged children. Their destination? Disney World, Florida or Disneyland, California for a day.
The Air Canada Foundation has a very unique partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network and Opération Enfant Soleil, enabling us to work directly with 15 pediatric hospitals in Canada. Together we help children regain their childhood through various initiatives including the Air Canada Foundation’s Hospital Transportation Program, the purchase of equipment with donated funds, and events such as Children’s Hospital Week and other individual hospital events across the country.
Since 1994, Breakfast Club of Canada has helped children access a nutritious breakfast and reach their full potential. Accredited by Imagine Canada for its effective governance and recognized for its promotion of local food products, the Club helps reach children in every province and territory across the country.
Since 2012, the Air Canada Foundation has supported the Club's mission by setting up school nutrition programs in Alberta, Manitoba and Nunavut. This collaboration ensures food security for children from all backgrounds.
Starlight Children’s Foundation Canada has been brightening the lives of seriously ill children and their families by bringing them joy, laughter and relief for 30 years. Starlight focuses on the entire family at a time when they feel most isolated, offering programs and events that can provide an escape from the daily stress of dealing with a serious illness. Their programs impact more than 30,000 children a month across Canada.
In part with the foundation's financial support, Starlight is able to fund the purchase of fun stations, destined for hospitalized kids. The Starlight Fun Center unit offers the latest in gaming technology that can be easily wheeled to intensive care units, emergency departments or individual hospital rooms and are a welcome bedside visitor.
Shriners Hospital for Children Canada is a bilingual, acute care centre providing pediatric orthopedic specialized care for rare and complex metabolic disorders. They help children and their families cope with their conditions and thrive despite them. Children from across Canada, the U.S. and around the world have benefited from the hospital’s ground-breaking research and innovative treatments, both in Montréal and in their own communities.
The Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada is our country's leading charity dedicated to improving the lives of 235,000 children and youth in the child welfare system. This organization funds and delivers initiatives that enable vulnerable young people to achieve their greatest potential in key needs areas: education, healing and recovery, enrichment and prevention.
The Foundation is proud to partner with the Children's Aid Foundation of Canada and directly impact this economically disadvantaged population of at-risk children and youth involved in the child welfare system and provide emergency health funding.
The Missing Children’s Network’s mission is to assist families in the search for their missing children. They work in collaboration with law enforcement and families to bring children home to safety and sensitize and educate the general public on the issues.
Their most recent initiative called SHINE was created to help pre-teens develop healthy and egalitarian friendships and relationships, with the hopes of significantly reducing the number of reports of runaway youth in Québec and their risk of falling victim to sexual exploitation.
Jack.org has a vision to transform Canada into a country where every young person is comfortable talking about and taking care of their mental health. Through their Jack Talks, Jack Chapters and Jack Summits, Jack.org is raising awareness and bringing together hundreds of young mental health advocates.
The Air Canada Foundation is proud to support more than 250 young people from coast to coast to participate in these initiatives.
Since 1996, On the Tip of the Toes Foundation has helped dozens of young people living with cancer retake control of their well-being thanks to life-altering therapeutic adventure expeditions. Supervised by medical professionals and experts in the outdoors, these journeys are highlighted by moments of reflection and activities that make it possible for these young people from across Canada to get together and break away from isolation and to exchange ideas and create deep bonds with other young people who share the same reality.
The activities take them out of their comfort zone while raising awareness of their capabilities, strengths and skills that they may have been underestimating or may not have known they had. It is a life experience that gives these young people back the tools they need to resume their daily life with renewed energy and a sense of well-being that has an enormous impact on their self-esteem.
The Air Canada Foundation is pleased to provide unforgettable travel experience on board Air Canada flights, enabling these young people to embark on wonderful adventures across Canada.
Seeing children suffering from cancer when he was being treated himself broke Terry Fox's heart and inspired his Marathon of Hope. Now, those efforts have fueled a unique initiative to give kids and young people with hard-to-treat cancers a chance to live when there are few, if any, treatment options left. Cancer is the number one disease killing children from ages six months to young adulthood. It is the leading cause of non-accidental death in children. Today, the survival rate for children with cancer is 80%, up from 10% over 50 years ago. Although more children are surviving cancer than ever before, we've still got 20% to go.
For the 20% of children and young people whose cancers have spread, returned or are resistant to treatment, outcomes remain grim. Terry Fox PROFYLE is for that 20%.
CAMPFIRE CIRCLE, formerly Camp Ooch & Camp Trillium, is a volunteer-based charity offering year-round play provision, creative, and recreational programs to 2,000+ children and families affected by childhood cancer. We aim to support Ontario’s entire paediatric oncology population in the future.
Ooch Muskoka: Ooch is the only overnight camp in Canada equipped to provide onsite IV chemotherapy treatment, blood transfusions, central line care and other special oncology work. Oncologists and oncology nurses are available 24/7 for the many patients that require ongoing medical care and treatment. Each summer, 450+ campers ages 6-18 attend Ooch Muskoka for two-week sessions, along with two specialized one-week sessions for teens (7Scape) and bereaved siblings (Teomul). Ooch Muskoka also hosts campers throughout the year during fall and winter Weekends at Camp (WACs).
