Why Not City Missions is gearing up for its annual fall fundraising dinner at the Best Western Brantford Hotel and Conference Centre on Saturday, October 25, 2025.
The organization, which was founded by Charlie and Sue Kopczyk in 2002, is a non-profit that offers several different services aimed at helping vulnerable youth improve their lives through mentorship opportunities, innovative programs, specialized support, and relationship building.
Karen Stewart, Why Not City Missions’ Executive Director, said that funds raised from the event will ultimately go towards supporting all of the organization’s programs and services.
“We’re privately funded and so these fundraising events are really important for us as an organization because they help us to continue offering all of our programs,” she said. “For example, the funds will go towards things like our Why Not Youth Centre, where kids aged 13 to 18 can drop-in in the evenings, access various services and learn different skills, grab a hot meal and sort of just hang out in a safe space. The funds will also go towards both Charlie’s Place and Supportive Housing for Young Parents (SHYP), and those are our supportive housing programs for young men and young mothers.”
Stewart added that the organization also recently added a new program to its list of services, which will also benefit from the event.
“We now have the Why Not+ drop-in program which, is similar to the original, but it’s an afternoon service for those in that 19 to 25-year-old age range. This is something we added in the last year because we’ve been seeing that the youth in that age group are not really doing okay,” she said. “Many of them continue to need some support because once they hit that 19 mark, a lot of services tend to be adult-focused, there’s a lot of backlog, and there’s really no social connections for 19 to 25-year-olds if you aren’t into something like sports, for example. So this gives them a safe space where they can come and have a little bit of a hangout and still get access to some support if they need it.”
The executive director said that for those who are interested in attending the fall fundraiser, there will be several ways to give back.
“We run a silent auction during the event and we also have some fundraising built into the tickets this year too,” said Stewart. “That’s new for us and so we’re hoping that will help bring in some much needed funds because it’s been a little of a rougher year in the sense that everybody’s really struggling. That’s something we recognize and so that’s why it’s important to slowly keep plugging away at some of these fundraising events and try to bring in donations where we can.”
She also added that while the goal of the event may be to raise funds, it’s also an opportunity to provide some updates about what the organization does, celebrate what it’s accomplished in the past year and touch on some upcoming initiatives like the Chritsmas campaign, as well as long-term goals.
“It’s just a really good time to celebrate all that we’ve achieved over the past year through our programs, so we do a lot of updates during the event too. For example, last year we had announced that we secured second-stage housing with the City through Lucy Marco Place, and so we’ll be talking a bit about the effects of that and how that has positively impacted all the youth,” said Stewart. “We also usually try to find creative ways to bring in some of our youth and have them interact with people, whether that’s through a skit, or music or even their art. We really like to get them involved in the night too.”
For those interested in attending, tickets are $75.00 and each ticket includes a $35 tax receipt, a buffet-style dinner, and access to the silent auction. To learn more, visit: https://www.whynotcitymissions.com/event-details/fall-fundraising-dinner-2025
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
