Charity doesn't need to cost a lot to be meaningful

Annual Gift Basket Drive For Womens Shelters. Nancy Pugliese, left, Bonnie Emerson, Jodi Binning, Gwen Axelrod and organizer Shelley Porritt got together in November 2010 for the annual Gift Basket Drive For Womens Shelters. For the past 12 years, Porritt, the owner of Porritt Real Estate in Etobicoke, has been donating her time and efforts to making gift baskets for women in women’s shelters across the GTA and surrounding areas. Staff file photo/IAN KELSO

Shelley Porritt, owner of Porritt Real Estate in Etobicoke, has found a way to be charitable each holiday season without having to stretch or break her budget to do so.

For the past 12 years, she has been donating her time and efforts to making gift baskets for women in women's shelters across the GTA and surrounding areas. And while it may take a fair bit of time to get the products for these baskets and to organize all the details, she thinks it's a necessary and valuable thing to do.

"There are so many programs out there for kids at Christmas, so it got me thinking that a lot of these women have left at Christmas time...so they're not worrying about Christmas, it's just for everybody else," she said.

These women, Porritt said, who are leaving for the safety of their lives and their children's, often are left without any personal items, let alone anything to celebrate the holidays.

For Porritt and some friends made 25 baskets by collecting unused items from their homes, then assembled and delivered the baskets themselves.

Today, they make upwards of 2,500 baskets yearly, which go to 64 shelters, and it's all achieved through donated items and the efforts of volunteers and Porritt and her staff.

"When you work here at Porritt Real Estate it's not that you're expected to join in or participate, but they all do," she said.

"I've found that so many people that come out believe it's a good cause...there's camaraderie and it's really become a group thing."

Porritt said the basket drive has become a part of her business, and there's even a space downstairs in the building where people drop donations off year-round.

Time and money is something not all business have to give away, even for a good cause. While making the holiday baskets takes a lot of her and her staff's time, what it costs her is some business hours, not cash. Porritt said it doesn't have to cost money for businesses to give back.

"We can afford to do this because it's mainly our time and our space," she said. "We can do this because when we are soliciting companies we're not asking for money, we're asking for products that are mislabelled or not being manufactured anymore, so they need to get rid of it and it's going to a good cause, and it's a way for them to give back as well."