Dealer news: Helping youth across the Greater Toronto Area

Pine View Auto Group has served the community in Vaughan, Ont., for more than five decades. It was 52 years ago this month that the company began as a single Pontiac Buick franchise at the corner of Highway 7 and Weston Road.

Today, the group is still operated by the Romeo family, which started it in 1970, and includes three dealerships, Airport Nissan and Pine View West Hyundai, both in Brampton, and Pine View Hyundai in Woodbridge.

For the past seven years, Pine View Auto Group has supported the CHUM CP24 Christmas Wish Toy Drive. This single initiative is one of the largest distributors of toys to children in need across the Greater Toronto Area. It also supplies registered charitable organizations, social service agencies, churches and community centres with financial donations.

Each November, customers and friends of Pine View Auto Group are encouraged to donate new and unwrapped toys that will be given to children up to 18 years old.

“Our friends, customers and suppliers have been extremely generous in support of the CHUM CP24 Christmas Wish Toy Drive,” said Mike Romeo, the group’s general manager. “We’re grateful for all of the toy donations we’ve received over the past seven years. It’s great to be involved in a program that brings so much joy and happiness to so many children across the GTA.”

Pine View is also a longtime supporter of the Vitanova Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that promotes awareness about substance abuse through outreach programs targeting elementary, secondary and post-secondary students as well as the wider community.

For several years, it has also supported Youth Bocce Canada – an organization that supports more than 400 athletes with special needs in the GTA and York Region – and Creating Alternatives, a day program for adults over 21 with developmental disabilities. As well, both Pine View Hyundai and Airport Nissan support Brampton’s annual Winter Lights Festival, an array of magical light displays that transforms Gage Park into a winter wonderland.

Helping to make wishes come true

Many car dealerships across the province contribute to organizations in their respective communities, but sometimes they also come together to contribute as a group. The Ontario Honda Dealers Association, along with the Honda Canada Foundation, recently came together to raise more than $84,000 for Make-A-Wish Canada during the 2022 Honda Indy Toronto in mid-July.

For more than a decade, Make-A-Wish fundraising activities have been an integral part of Toronto’s marquee racing event. In lieu of paid admission, attendees are encouraged to make a contribution to the organization, which grants wishes for children with critical illnesses, when entering the Indy grounds. All donations are then matched by the Honda Canada Foundation. To date this effort has raised more than $900,000 for Make-A-Wish Canada.