Sprott Alumni Delivers Ray of Sunshine to Seniors

Marissa Parker graduated from the Bachelor of International Business program at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business in spring 2021 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While searching for work in a tough job market, Marissa had an idea to volunteer her time to support seniors across Canada.

Marissa co-founded Sending Sunshine, with her friends Tracy Wu, Emily Crowe and Kaitlyn Liang. Sending Sunshine is a non-profit organization whose goal is to minimize the adverse effects of social isolation among seniors by sending handwritten cards to them from people all over Canada.

“I felt deeply for the people who needed to see their family but couldn’t and thought that must have been very challenging,” said Marissa. “I felt they could use a ray of sunshine in their day, so I asked three of my friends if they wanted to start this venture with me, and they said yes so that is what we did”.

To start Sending Sunshine, Marissa used the knowledge she gained from her International Business degree and year of study abroad in France. Having concentrated in International Marketing and Trade, Marissa used her knowledge of targeting different audiences through social media to develop Sending Sunshine’s outreach strategy.

In October 2020, the Sending Sunshine team made volunteer hours available for high school students. The team used the social platform TikTok to advertise, creating a short video that received over 967,000 views. By the end of 2020, with the support of volunteers, long-term care facilities and service organizations more than 40,000 cards were delivered across Canada.  

Today, Sending Sunshine has delivered over 102,000 cards to seniors in 9 provinces.

On November 19, Sprott School of Business students, alumni and community members gathered in the Nicol Building on the Carleton University campus for their own letter-writing session for Sending Sunshine to send out Sprott Love to seniors this holiday season.