Your support of The Bouma Group helps us support your community through WEEMAX Children’s Charities and several shelter-based charities offering care and a “hand up” to those in need.
WEEMAX Children’s Charities is the philanthropic undertaking of The Bouma Group, their colleagues, and the RE/MAX JAZZ family of REALTORS. This exclusive, ground-breaking program partners with local charitable and nonprofit organizations to provide much-needed funds, equipment, and support that otherwise would not be provided for here in our community.
WEEMAX is all about local giving—seeing our donation dollars put to good use for our clients, neighbours, family, and friends. We have personally committed our resources to support the Pediatric Wing at Lakeridge Health Oshawa and the Pediatric Program at Hearth Place Cancer Support Centre in Oshawa. Since 2015, WEEMAX has provided the neonatal ward with brand-new life-saving equipment, like new Infant Resuscitation Units and Cardiorespiratory Monitors—over $125,000 worth of machinery. In addition, WEEMAX has committed $150,000 to fund and furnish a brand-new wing at Hearth Place, where local children dealing with cancer can get the help and support they need. In 2020, we began focusing our resources on supporting Their Opportunity, a grassroots organization that funds kids’ sports and recreation programs for local at-risk youth. Our $150,000 commitment to this worthy undertaking will see hundreds, if not thousands, of children in our community able to realize their dreams of enrolment and participation in sports and recreation, giving them direction, purpose, and invaluable life skills. Through Their Opportunity, we will work closely with local schools and school boards to implement extracurricular activities to develop confidence, leadership, and team collaboration in young people, our leaders of tomorrow.
Shelter-based charities are an obvious fit for The Bouma Group’s philanthropy. This is partly because we are in the business of helping our clients acquire shelter while realizing that many others do not have the tools or resources to walk through our door, let alone the door to their own homes. It’s also generational. Roger’s father, Mike’s grandfather, helped raise the seed money that started Gate 3:16, where Okke Bouma became a regular volunteer working with (for) the underhoused and underfed members of our community. Later, he volunteered and contributed to The Refuge, which grew out of Gate 3:16, focusing on at-risk youth.
Roger and Mike contribute to the Ontario REALTORS CARE® Foundation through the Central Lakes Association of REALTORS® (CLAR). The foundation has a goal of donating $5,000,000 per year to shelter-based charities across the province by 2026. Every dollar raised in Durham is returned (donated) by the foundation to shelter-based charities in Durham. Roger is in his fourth year as the Ontario REALTOR CARES® Foundation director and is the foundation’s 2023 President