Charitable Work

Community Charity Partners

Our club is proud to partner with a wide range of fundraisers and sponsorships for other organizations in our community. In addition to these broad contributions, we maintain a focused commitment to several key partners through sustained annual support and ongoing collaborations.

Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative (Picnic in the Park Partner)

Since 2010, DWCC has been collaborating with neighbours, local businesses, local organizations and the City of Windsor working on creating and supporting a loving community.

Drouillard Place

Drouillard Place has been serving the Ford City / East Windsor community since 1979. It was founded by caring neighbours who wanted to create a place of support for local families. Over the years, this non-profit has grown into a vital community agency offering programs such as an EarlyON Child & Family Centre, youth programs, social work services, and an emergency food bank, all with the mission of strengthening families and building hope. Many of the non perishables we collect at our events, benefit this service agency.

Feeding Windsor-Essex (Picnic In the Park Partner)

Feeding Windsor-Essex is a community organization dedicated to providing meals and support to people experiencing food insecurity. They offer various programs including a monthly lunch club, community meals, and breakfast clubs, to help combat food insecurity and social isolation. Their organization relies on dations from our community organizations and businesses to fund its initiatives.

BreakAway Gaming

When you play at Breakaway, a portion comes back to us, giving us the ability to serve, give, and

help strengthen our com munity. They are the backbone of many of our initiatives.

If you play, please play there… it truly makes a difference.

Every year, during the winter holiday season, we partner with 5 schools, and each school selects 10 families who need help the most. It’s an honour to serve these families, and we are truly grateful for the trust each school places in us.

Our volunteers put together a turkey, stuffing, vegetables and other side dishes to help create a traditional holiday meal for 50 families who would otherwise struggle to provide that for themselves.

We then deliver these meals right to the children's schools, with our aim being to spread love, joy and hope throughout the holiday season.

Service is at the heart of everything we do.

While our many programs and events include charitable elements, this section highlights

specific initiatives where our club directly gives back to the community.

For more than 30 years the heart of our work has included one very special tradition: our yearly gift buy for the Children’s Ward at Met Hospital. This isn’t a one-off drive — it’s a multi-decade promise the club made to local families and kids going through some of their toughest days.

Each year our members and community donors raise funds and shop together for age-appropriate toys, books, comfort items, and practical gifts. They are wrapped and personalized as our volunteers take time to add a note or card so each child knows someone in the community cares.

Our members then bring the gifts to the Children’s Ward, visit where possible, and leave a little extra cheer with hospital staff who care for these kids every day.

If you’d like to help our initiative through donations or volunteering to shop/wrap, or even spreading the word, please reach out to the Optimist Club of South Windsor. Together we can keep that tradition alive and keep bringing hope to children when they need it most.