In the Community

Staff at the Sheraton in Richmond Hill Raise Big Bucks to Help Some of the World’s Poorest

Johnny Aliyianis has pretty jam-packed days at work. As a concierge at the Sheraton Hotel in Richmond Hill, Ontario, he recommends restaurants and books reservations, covers the front desk, serves the hotel's elite guests in club service, works the switchboard, stocks the minibars and gives customers directions to just about anywhere they need to go.

Yet somehow amid all the clamour and chaos that comes with running a busy hotel, he and a group of his colleagues, with the support of hotel owner and president Jason Kaptyn, found time to raise a staggering $20 078 to support CHF programs—pulling it together sometimes just a penny at a time.

“We have a social committee and we organize fundraisers,” says Johnny Aliyianis, a Concierge at the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North in Richmond Hill, ON. “We also did a loose penny drop—staff could drop in loose change and we donated it to CHF. We also have Sheraton awards for staff that are called hospitality dollars. What some employees did was use their dollars as donations to CHF.”

Sheraton staff are committed to the cause, working year round on different fundraisers to pull funds together. Johnny himself donated to the campaign—he bought a couple of movie posters for himself through a silent auction and the profits went into the fund.

Despite this recent major donation—the latest in a number from the hotel—he and the rest of the social committee aren’t taking any breaks. The team is comprised of more than twenty people from HR, sales, the gym, front office, and security and are back at the grindstone putting together a candy-gram fundraiser for Valentine’s Day. He says they do it because it feels good to help people who need it.

“We donated because CHF seems like a good organization. The cause is great and we really want to help the kids in Africa… It’s sad that some have to go without food and we would do anything to help them.”