Issue link: https://publications.tfs.ca/i/1373665
D O N O R P R O F I L E DURING A CHALLENGING YEAR MAKING A DIFFERENCE Top left to right: Akira Okubo, Tina Lee, Kira, Grade 3, and Kenji, Grade 1, and Taylin Akira Okubo and Tina Lee Proud parents to TFS students, Kira, Grade 3, and Kenji, Grade 1, Akira Okubo and Tina Lee have been members of the TFS community since they joined the school in 2016. Tina leads her family business, T&T Supermarkets, and is the Co-chair of the COVID-19 Business Recovery Council for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In the early days of pandemic, Tina took quick protective measures to ensure the health and safety of both her staff and customers. She then reached out to share her knowledge and expertise with TFS. This early advice helped the school to adapt as quickly as possible and develop strategies to ensure TFS could reopen safely in the fall. In addition, Tina and Akira donated 50 disposable face masks for every student, providing comfort to the community and helping TFS emphasize the importance of wearing masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Their gift to TFS sparked the creation of a new program in their company to donate masks to schools and hospitals in cities where T&T operates, with over one million masks donated to-date, a heartwarming example of citizenship and the values that the TFS community lives by. "Having set up COVID-19 safety measures in our supermarket chain, I knew the next essential service to secure was going to be schools and keeping our kids safe, so I reached out to TFS to see how I could help. Every family can support the TFS community in their own unique way. For us, it was about knowledge exchange on pandemic safety protocols and best practices, and providing the first batch of face masks for all students and teachers at a time when they were in high demand and low supply. Last summer, Public Health Ontario had yet to mandate masks for schools, but we wanted to make sure parents could take comfort in having easily accessible masks to protect their kids as a best practice." "Every family can support the TFS community in their own unique way. For us it was about knowledge exchange on pandemic safety protocols." 1 1