Family Dinner with @BostonPizza #BPKidsCards: Perfect Teachable Moment

Food for Thought: Making a family dinner about more than food. 

We all know how important eating together as a family is, but you'll really raise the bar on the impact sharing a meal together as a family can have by purchasing a Boston Pizza Kids Card for a minimum donation of $5. starting now until October 2nd, 2016. 

With a single $5. donation you create a teachable moment, help kids in need by supporting mentorship opportunities, and get 5 free* Boston Pizza kids meals. 

As my boys head to college and university this September, I reflect on the efforts it took to get to this point, and the resources my husband and I invested to help get them here. They've benefited from close and engaged relationships with their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and have no shortage of impressive role models and mentors in their family to choose from. I think about the importance of youth having people in their lives to teach, guide and model positive behaviour, and just how lucky my kids are. 

Sadly this isn't the case for all kids. Not everyone grows up with access to role models. mentors, mentoring programs, and financial resources to help navigate life's challenges and choices. This is why the Boston Pizza Kids Card Campaign is so important. For a minimum of a $5. donation (available now - Oct 2, 2016) you can purchase #BPKidsCards to help ensure many more kids in Canada get support and access to role models and mentoring programs. Each $5. BPKids Card purchased provides an hour with a role model for a child in need. 

Plus your Boston Pizza Kids Card gets you 5 free* meals. That's a $35. value! If you register your BP Kids Card with a MyBP account you'll get another free kids meal, making it 6 free* meals for $5.

By involving your child in the process of purchasing a BP Kids Card you have an opportunity to teach them how this donation helps the Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects to provide more than 200, 000 hours of mentorship to Canadian children and youth. It's an opportunity to teach them about giving back, charity and about the incredible organizations who partner with Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects and together provide support, role models and mentorship programs to kids who would otherwise have none.

For more than 25 years Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects has raised more than $22 million and partnered with organizations and charities such as: 

• Big Brother Big Sister Canada: Helps 1000's of youth with mentoring programs and the funds raised help them "extend and expand mentoring services to new communities and youth who do not currently have access to mentoring programs".
• JDRF Canada: BP Kids Cards help to fund "youth ambassador programs which provide mentorship to young people living with T1D (Type 1 diabetes).
• Kids Help Phone: Donations help to fund their "national professional counselling services" to youth as well as "adult tools and resources and online content on their website".
• Live Different: Funds help Live Different to deliver high school motivational presentations to inspire youth to "embrace a lifestyle that cares about people not stuff".
• Rick Hansen Foundation: The Boston Pizza Foundation helps the Rick Hansen Foundation spread the message of inclusion and reach more than 500,000 kids across Canada each year with its Rick Hansen School Programs. 

All this for just a $5 donation! So while you and your family gather for a delicious meal at Boston Pizza think of all this meal means to you, your kids, your community and the kids you've helped to reach their goals for a bright future. 

Bon appetit!

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about Boston Pizza Kids Cards.

For more information about the Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects and BP Kids Cards follow Boston Pizza on twitter and facebook, and Boston Pizza Foundation on twitter and facebook. 

*Some conditions apply
Note: I have been compensated for my time creating this post. All opinions are my own and on a personal note I have in the past and will continue to support Boston Pizza and Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects in their efforts to give back to the community. I consider it an honour to participate in this campaign.

Until Oct 11th A $5 Donation Will Get You A #BPKidsCard at @BostonPizza Instore or Online ($35 value)

Do the Math! It's a Simple Case of 

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I'm a parent of teens and apparently I'm too old to understand the "new" math taught these days, but I understand that more than ever kids need support and mentors and that the Boston Pizza Kids Card adds up to a great deal! 

In an ideal world all kids would have equal access to the tools and support needed to reach their full potential, and variables like finances, location, or accessibility would not factor into the equation. 

*From August 31st until October 11th, 2015 with a minimum donation (feel free to donate more) you can get yourself a BP Kids Card at any Boston Pizza location or at BostonPizza.com. Not only does your donation raise funds for the Boston Pizza Foundation, it gets you 5 free kids meals, a $35 value for only $5!

Plus when you register your #BPKidsCard with your free MyBP account you get a 6th kids meal free.

Now according to my kids' textbooks BEDMAS must be applied to all equations, but I'm applying my own version of BEDMAS to the problem. 
(WARNING: Not Recommended for High School Math homework)

B - Brackets to group people and organizations together in a common cause. 

E - Exponents the power of amplifying the message and reach of programs. 

D - Division of the funds raised between partners that provide valuable programs.

M - Multiplication of the funds raised and the programs made available to youth.

A - Addition of new programs and expansion of existing ones.

S - Subtraction of barriers to youth in pursuing their dreams. 

Since 1990 the Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects' donations and fundraising efforts have been assisting its partners in developing, and delivering, programs to youth that provide access to tools, support and mentorship. Over the past 25 years the Boston Pizza Foundation has donated and raised over $20 million for programs to help Canadian youth be the best they can be. 

This year's goal is to raise $730,000!

Partners like Big Brother Big Sister Canada, JDRF Canada, Kids Help Phone, Live Different and the Rick Hansen Foundation will use those funds to continue to provide information, role models, mentors, ambassadorships, and programs to thousands of Canadian youth.

• Big Brother Big Sister Canada: Helps 1000's of youth with mentoring programs and the funds raised help them "extend and expand mentoring services to new communities and youth who do not currently have access to mentoring programs".
• JDRF Canada: BP Kids Cards help to fund "youth ambassador programs which provide mentorship to young people living with T1D (Type 1 diabetes).
• Kids Help Phone: Donations help to fund their "national professional counselling services" to youth as well as "adult tools and resources and online content on their website".
• Live Different: Funds help Live Different to deliver high school motivational presentations to inspire youth to "embrace a lifestyle that cares about people not stuff".
• Rick Hansen Foundation: The Boston Pizza Foundation helps the Rick Hansen Foundation spread the message of inclusion and reach more than 500,000 kids across Canada each year with its Rick Hansen School Programs. 

By investing a minimum $5 donation for a #BPKidsCard you have the power to multiply the number of youth impacted and the range of programs available to youth in Canada. That adds up to an impressive rate of return: healthy and happier kids, which makes for a better Canada, AND free kids meals.

Do the math! It's a WIN WIN! 

For more information about the Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects and BP Kids Cards follow Boston Pizza on twitter and facebook, and Boston Pizza Foundation on twitter and facebook. 

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about Boston Pizza Kids Cards.

*Some conditions apply

Note: I have been compensated for my time creating this post. All opinions are my own and on a personal note I have in the past and will continue to support Boston Pizza and Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects in their efforts to give back to the community. I consider it an honour to participate in this campaign.

They're here for a good dine, not a long time @BostonPizza $5 donation gets you #BPKIDCard @BostonPizzaFdn

Saving money and a good meal for your kids couldn't be easier AND you look like a hero to your kids and all those that benefit from the Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects program.

Hero for almost zero is what I call it! 

For a minimum $5 donation you get a Boston Pizza Kids Card good for 5 free Kids Meals ($35 value, some conditions apply). Donations go to help the Boston Pizza Foundation raise funds and awareness for organizations in Canada that help kids by providing role models and mentoring programs. 

Organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, Kids Help Phone, 
and Rick Hansen Foundation. 

Last year they raised over $615,000! 

That is a lots of good deeds and good feeds all because of a $5 donation and BP Kids Cards, 

but I think we can do even better this year! 

From September 22nd until November 2nd you can show your support by purchasing by way of a minimum $5 donation (feel free to donate more if you are able) a Boston Pizza Kids Card either at your local Boston Pizza location or online at Boston Pizza.com.
If you register your card you get an extra meal bonus! Yes that is 6 meals in total!

Take a minute to read what Sarah from Journeys of the Zoo had to say about her Boston Pizza experience at A Meal to Remember Thanks to Boston Pizza Orleans and Carla from Working Mommy Journal about Gluten Free options at #GlutenWise at Boston Pizza

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about Boston Pizza Kids Cards.

Note: I have not been compensated for this post in any way. The purpose of this post is merely to share this campaign and an opportunity to win a BP Kids Card with my readers.