When choosing a charity to support, it was important for CK Spas’ owners Dana Hyde and Charles Koncewicz that it be close to home and go toward a cause from which they’d personally benefited.
A six-minute drive from the couple’s business outside Montreal, Quebec, Centre Marie Eve provides support to single mothers. When money is tight, it’s a struggle to put gifts under the Christmas tree — a reality Koncewicz knew all too well. “When my husband was a child, he was less fortunate,” Hyde says. “For many years, his Christmas gifts were brought to him from the Salvation Army. He wanted to find an organization that does this.”
Other services at Centre Marie Eve include psychotherapy; motherhood workshops; help with money-management skills; and donations of clothing and equipment for babies and children.
Hyde says she also grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money. “We didn’t wear the nicest clothes,” she says. “Even when [Charles and I] started dating, we didn’t have a lot of money. We told ourselves that if we were ever in the position to do so we would give back, and we’ve stuck to that.”
CK Spas has donated to Centre Marie Eve since 2019. Donations are collected starting in September each year. The goal is to fill one of the company’s hot tubs in the store with these donations, which the company has easily achieved. Every year, the size of that hot tub has grown as proof customers are on board with this charitable mission, and customers who donate are entered into a drawing for four Mineraluxe three-month kits.
The gifts are then transported to Centre Marie Eve, where mothers arrive a few days before Christmas to select a toy for each of their children. “When they show up to get the gifts, they actually have tears in their eyes,” Hyde says.
Some of the donated toys are expensive, says Isabelle Jorg, executive director of Centre Marie Eve. “We are very grateful for the initiative of Dana and her husband,” Jorg adds. “They help brighten the Christmas of the mothers of the Centre Marie Eve.”
Encouraged by this partnership, CK Spas recently began working with two other organizations. For every $100 customers spend on Backyard Brands’ Dazzle or Mineraluxe products, CK Spas donates $10 to the local SPCA, a no-kill animal shelter. And for every $10,000 spent on a hot tub or swim spa this year, $100 will go to Water First, which ensures Canada’s Indigenous communities have access to clean drinking water, and trains locals to run the water systems. “I still can’t believe that in 2022, there are people in our country who do not have safe water to drink,” Hyde says. “If we can afford to go out to suppers at restaurants or own a boat, then we can afford to give back to the community.”