Recent Highlights
2023-2024
Tom Leon Awards 2024
Thanks to the continued generosity of Connie Leon and the Leon Family, four students again received the 2024 Tom Leon Student Bursary, valued at $5,000 each: Edgi Lance Larioza Lascota, Ramena Edward Shlimon, Reshana Deens Rajkumar and Shirah Frances Cardillo. These bursaries were presented at the Toronto Catholic District School Board year-end Mass on June 19th.
2024 First Ever Spring Fling
As Spring arrived, AFL tried a new type of event; a Spring Fling Pub Night. Thanks to Nickel9 Distillery, who sponsored the event, AFL was able to raise more than $3,600 for urgent student needs.
A great time was had by all as guests were treated to tasty refreshments and an assortment of beverages, and a live performance by the talented band, Discount, from Michael Power St Joseph Catholic Secondary School who entertained the audience with some classic tunes by Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire and other well known songs. Guests also had a chance at winning door prizes, and to take advantage of great deals on a wide range of items in our silent auction.
We hope that this can be added to our roster of regular fundraising events, as we continue to explore other ideas to bring the community together.
2024 Nutrition Month Winners
It takes a village to raise a child, and in our schools, it also takes the tireless efforts of dedicated volunteers to ensure that all students receive nutritious meals and snacks through our Student Nutrition Programs. Our immense gratitude goes out to all of our school administrators, SNP coordinators and other volunteers for their commitment to student health and well-being.
For the third year, we held a random draw from among the many schools who submitted photos and stories about their incredible SNP volunteers during Nutriton Month in March, and we visited the winning schools during Volunteer Month in April to present these individuals with a certificate of appreciation and a gift as a token of our thanks. Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Laura and Shawna (Francis Libermann CHS), Sandra (St. Maurice CS), Nada (St Jane Frances CS).
Toronto Marlies Game Day 2024
Close to 7,000 students were on hand to cheer on the Toronto Marlies to victory at the annual TCDSB-AFLMarlies School Day Game on March 6th. AFL is grateful to MLSE (the Marlies) for donating more than $21,000 to help us support urgent student needs.
2nd Annual A Team Believe Initiative
16 A teams were involved from across the TCDSB in this year’s 2024 A Team Believe Initiative. Each team worked through a number of assignments and online training sessions on the road to coming up with ideas for projects/ initiatives in response to identified needs in their schools. These student leaders blew us away at pitch day on February 23rd.
All teams received $1,000 to help them initiate their projects and they are all winners in our books. The top three Marshall McLuhan-1st, Loretto College-2nd and Neil McNeil-3rd walked away with an additional $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 respectively. Congratulations to all the angels who made this year’s A Team Believe initiative a tremendous success.
Toonies 4 Tummies Event
AFL was pleased to support the Ontario launch event for the annual Toonies for Tummies campaign. Participating grocery stores and corporate sponsors help to raise funds annually through the campaign initiated by the Grocery Foundation more than a decade ago. AFL appreciates their support and partnership in the effort to fight hunger by supporting Student Nutrition Programs in schools across Toronto. This year’s event was held at St. Augustine Catholic School in North York, with 90 volunteers helping to serve a nutritious breakfast to each and every student at the school. These included AFL’s own Chair Don Walker, and TCDSB officials Director Dr Brendan Browne, Chair Nancy Crawford, Trustee Ida LiPreti and Executive Superintendent Shawna Campbell.
Snow Ball Gala
It’s been four years since our last Gala, and we were more than delighted to welcome over 450 sponsors and guests (including over 40 students and nutrition program volunteers) to celebrate the start of the holiday season with us at a new venue, Chateau Le Jardin. We are truly grateful for the incredible generosity of our sponsors and donors, and all who participated in the raffle and auction, which helped us raise record funds to support student needs. We are particularly grateful to MayStar, Poetry Living and AEC Group for donating tables so that some of our amazing SNP volunteers and student leaders could attend. Check out a few of the highlights below:
